Unit 6 Blog #2

Biological weapons have been used throughout history to cause massive damage to country's population, morale, and armies in large scale wars. While first used in crude ways by transmitting diseases through dead bodies or animals, as technology has advanced, so has the biology that has the power to infect and kill millions of people. Biological warfare has branched into the cultivation and use of bacteria, which are easier to control than most viruses that have just as much potential to harm the offensive army as the targets of this kind of attack. This kind of warfare is effective because it can be passed from person to person, with little effort put into the act after the initial bacteria or virus is sent out to a group of people. Biological weapons are usually grouped in three sections, such as germs, bacteria, and chemicals. While chemicals are considered on a different level of warfare, Chemical Warfare, they are still linked to biological warfare in the sense that they affect people directly by being ingested through food or water and spread from person to person. I think that this is a very effective method of warfare due to the stealth at which bacteria and/or viruses could be spread to enemies. However, I believe that this method of warfare is closely linked to terrorism, due to its lack of shock-and-awe violence like nuclear bombs. In a way, biological warfare has the potential to kill many more people than a weapon of mass destruction could due to the fact that once someone is infected, they can spread diseases to any person that they are in contact with without having any knowledge of it for a period of time.