Word: use
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...proliferation of poison gases, while chilling, is not surprising. "Chemical weapons are the poor man's weapon," explains Etienne Copel, formerly deputy chief of staff of the French air force. "They are cheap, simple to use -- and very effective." The sad fact is that any country with a pesticide factory is capable of making deadly gases. Iraq, for example, produced some of its chemical weapons at a pesticide plant at Samarra. "It's a relatively low-tech option," says Graham Pearson, director of Britain's defensive chemical-warfare program at Porton Down. "And Third World countries appear able to obtain...
Such activity violates the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which outlawed the use of all poison gases, but never forbade their production and stockpiling. More stringent precautions might have been advised, given the lengthy and sordid history of chemical warfare. Use of deadly fumes dates back to the Peloponnesian War, when tar pitch and sulfur were mixed to produce a suffocating gas. Twenty-three centuries later, chemical weaponry emerged as the ugly stepchild of the modern chemical industry. The great nations of Europe decided that such weapons were barbaric and outlawed them in the Hague Convention...
...proposed that each country be allowed a stockpile of up to 2,000 tons, which, while minimal, would be significant enough to discourage assaults. When the U.S. resumed the manufacture of chemical weapons last December for the first time since 1969, deterrence was the rationale. While agreeing that first use of chemical weapons should be banned, the Reagan Administration contended that, given the wide proliferation of chemical agents, the U.S. had no choice but to maintain an ability to retaliate...
...military installations. According to the Israelis, a military research institute north of Damascus code-named Sers is preparing a new warhead for Syria's Soviet-made Scud B ground-to-ground missiles, which have a range of 175 miles. If the project is successful, Syria would be able to use chemical weapons against Israel's cities...
Still, there have been rocky moments. Earlier this year Moscow charged that Washington's renewed production of chemical killers threatened to torpedo the talks. For its part, the U.S. has charged that the Soviets have been involved with the use of poison gases in Laos, Kampuchea and Afghanistan, allegations that the Soviets strenuously deny. Nonetheless, when the ninth round of bilateral talks concluded in Geneva last month, the U.S. described the negotiations as "cordial, very serious and nonpolemical...