The United States has announced that it has completed the destruction of its last chemical weapons stockpiles. This act means the world is officially free of chemical weapons, as it is the last state to declare its possession of these formidable weapons of war.
The US Department of Defense (DOD) recently announced that the country’s “old” chemical weapons stockpile has been safely destroyed under the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
At its peak in the mid-1980s, the United States had 30,000 tons of chemical warfare agents. These included nerve gases such as sarin and tabun, which disrupt the nerve’s ability to transmit messages to organs, and bubbling agents, such as mustard gas, that cause severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and lungs.
In 1986, as the Cold War was slowly coming to an end, Congress mandated that all US stockpiles of chemical warfare agents be destroyed. This plan was endorsed in 1997 by the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention, a global treaty designed by the United States to rid the world of chemical weapons.
The US began getting rid of chemical weapons in 1990, but this long process has only just been completed. The last M55 rocket filled with sarin nerve gas was destroyed on July 7 at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the Department of Defense said in a recent statement.
History of chemical weapons
Chemical weapons were first used in the First World War and killed approximately 100,000 soldiers. Many survivors of chemical weapons attacks were left with lifelong health problems.
The widespread use of mustard gas during the war was widely condemned as a “barbaric innovation” and governments sought to curb its use. This led to the signing of the Geneva Protocol in 1925, which outlawed the use of chemical weapons.
However, most of the world’s great powers continued to use them, including the United States.
It was strongly suggested that the US used white phosphorus as a chemical weapon against the rebels in Iraq during its attack on Fallujah in 2004.
Given this dire record with chemical weapons, the latest news from the US has been welcomed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. However, it is still possible that some countries still have chemical weapons but have not declared them to international authorities.
Syria, for example, was accused in August 2013 of using illegal chemical weapons against its own civilians. Syria’s Assad regime vehemently denied this. But the United Nations is cautious as they still cannot confirm whether the country is storing chemical weapons in secret stockpiles.
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