Smallpox: An ancient deadly viral illness that ended the lives of millions, especially in the 20^th century, blinding over one third of its victims and killing over another third of its adult hosts and about most of its young victims. With the ingenious discovery of its vaccine by Edward Jenner in the 17^th century and the global efforts to enforce vaccination programs, especially by the World Health Organization, smallpox was eradicated from our planet, with the last case ever reported being in Somalia in 1977. And today, smallpox is nothing but history to most of us to an extent that it has been removed from our vaccination protocols, now that it is declared extinct. However, and although it has been wiped out from existence, smallpox is still hibernating in a frozen form in 2 major places in the world: The United States of America for sure, and its historical rival, none other than Russia. If you ask why, the answer strikes you with a blast as obvious yet shocking as a lightning jolt: it is classified as a potentially first class biological weapon! The remarkable point is that biological agents are very expensive to create and require a great deal of inhumane effort to finalize, but they can be very effective weapons in the biochemical warfare industry, as they ensure effective mass destruction to living people only, sparing all infrastructure, protect their own nation of origin and ensure their own renewal and amplification starting from an inoculum that can be as small as a tear-drop.

Bioweapons are the ultimate killing entity, as they ensure mass devastation in terms of human, sometimes every living being mortality, without affecting much of the infrastructure around. With genius microbes targeting one human, a group of high-risk exposure people to an illness, an entire population or even a whole spectrum of living beings, massive lives shedding without really discovering the actual identity of the killer can be ensured. Let’s take HIV as an example. It is one of the very well-known culprits of claiming the lives of millions via AIDS, believed by some to be a near-perfectly engineered virus that got out of control, created initially to target the human homosexual population. It was identified first in 1981 in a small group of men. However, it is believed to have existed long before that, silently killing hundreds in mysterious conditions before being discovered. As we can see, a biological weapon can be created, released, activated and observed in action long before it can even be identified! This ensures a wipe-off of complete nations in a timespan as narrow as a year. Other bacterial weapons might not even differentiate between human and animals, thus deceasing both alike. Another remarkable thing is that through this process of merciless devastation, and unlike other mass destruction weapons, all infrastructure entities are preserved. Homes, schools, hospitals, bridges, buildings… basically everything can be left for the new conquerors to own. Living disease weaponry is a unique method of killing that ensures murdering military units as well as civilians in war, leaving behind ghost cities ready for new inhabitants.

Ensuring country of origin safety is key in any arm industry, and this is another point biological weapons excel at. The truth is that countries or nations coming out with such weapons are very well aware that if they are not immune to them, they will be on the verge of their own extinction as well. Therefore, such war sides ensure they are totally protected from any infection they are to create, either by vaccines or by effective antidotes. However, they are to make sure only them possess such an immunity, as the antagonist scenario would defeat the whole point of this new concept. If we use our classical example of smallpox, the nations still owning it would have to make sure they are immune to it via the effective historical vaccines before even thinking of launching such a deadly double-edged sword infection. This, however, poses a great threat for humanity, as if every capable nation creates its own perfectly-designed “military microbe”, it would ensure a fast destruction of life as we know it before any vital discoveries or agreements can be made, especially if key individuals in such a fray are disease-ridden. Unlike nuclear or chemical weaponry that can be crippled by proximity of fighting states, biological weaponry always emerges superior in overcoming this barrier, killing the enemy effectively while leaving the allies intact.

Another major domain of superiority of biological combat is the unique one of self-reinforcement and progression, from a quantity as tiny and minute as few grams of powder. This is because such a concept thrives on living tissues to reproduce – a nearly infinite source in war. Not discriminating between soldier or civilian, male or female or child or elderly, these weapons can deploy bases in nearly any candidate cell, tissue or organ. This way, only one affected individual can ensure an entire country or even continent is infected, overcoming the barriers or air, water and land. With the modern lifestyle driven by technology, distance is now shortened and time is no longer an obstacle. Consequently, any infection can spread very swiftly even before it can be detected. This was especially seen with diseases of bioterrorism such as anthrax, which thrived at its time. Other examples of very successful diseases outside the spectrum of bioterrorism include Ebola and the very common influenza, which belong to a list so long that can go on filling many pages. This would ensure a mild outbreak can evolve into an epidemic in a region or, in some cases, a global pandemic in no time at all, without the need of continuous support. Just start them and they take it from there! This is the true power of bioterrorism, that can start with as little as a needle pin and spread like fire in an oil derrick.

Creating a weapon of mass destruction that perfect requires a great deal of effort and resources for sure. Whether it is about reviving an ancient monster microorganism or starting a brand new one from scratch, biological weapons are to cost billions of dollars or their equivalent and utilize the latest of what technology has to offer in order to see light. Just try to imagine engineering or planning to launch a perfect weapon with all the privileges described before. One would for sure need to utilize the finest expertise and equipment in the field of genetics and bioengineering as well as vaccination, prevention and research to create antidotes, with all the funding required. Besides, in weapons very specific to humans or unique races or groups of people, one might also need unethical research on human subjects to closely observe the effects and experiment on the treatments or vaccines. If such resources went into better investments, a fraction would be enough to deal with most of the humanitarian and environmental problems our world faces today. This proves how inhumane such research can be. Furthermore, the research conducted, especially on humans, to create such weapons ensures faith in humanity is lost to the point of no return in the places enforcing them. The technology of bioterrorism is a very expensive and unethical one that costs the world worth a fortune of money and skill.

Starting small, ending mountainous, killing billions, conquering all borders and wiping-off nations and protecting others are all facts that make the extensively expensive and immoral concept of bio-weaponry a very effective weapon of mass destruction that puts chemical and nuclear warfare to shame. When we experience living examples and references containing such new concepts, and after we have seen the much milder full capabilities of nuclear and chemical warfare, we can easily perceive that in our latest century, we are coming face-to-face with a new monster: one that can kill mercilessly, one that can bring back nightmares such as the plague, anthrax or smallpox, one that is called “biological warfare”. This is, without any doubt, a monster so deadly that it can surely thrive as the greatest threat to mankind in the 21^st century.

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Secretary of Ammatour Cell

Progressive Youth Organization

Senior Medical Student