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From: clyde@ut-ngp.UUCP (Clyde W. Hoover)
Newsgroups: net.tv.da,net.politics
Subject: Worse than Nuclear War
Message-ID: <141@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-Nov-83 12:08:07 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.141
Posted: Wed Nov 23 12:08:07 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Nov-83 06:39:50 EST
Organization: Comp. Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Lines: 27

What scares me worse than the possibilty of nuclear war is the potential
use of chemical and/or biological weapons.  Imagine the release of a 
short-lived (say 2-3 days) virus that incapacitates and kills.  The U.S.
and/or U.S.S.R. could blanket the other with such nasties which would
kill as many people as horribly as using nukes, with the side benefit of
not turning the area into a radioactive wasteland.

While not as quick nor as immediate as nukes, a war so fought would devastate
the population of the Earth, and, if we were very lucky, also destroy the
planetary ecology, all without Sagan's "nuclear winter".

Imagine a slow wave of death sliding across America, borne on the winds.
Done, perhaps, during the holidays when much of the apprartus of government
is semi-idle and distracted.  Think of contaminated lakes and resevoirs,
polluted food crops and livestock.  Even if the death toll could be held
to a minimum, the economic effect would be devastating.

And you thought NUCLEAR war was bad enough...

		Shouter-To-Dead-Parrots
		(Clyde Hoover)
		eagle!ut-ngp!clyde
		ihnp4!ut-ngp!clyde
-- 
Clyde W. Hoover @ Univ. of Texas Computation Center
Austin, Texas 
clyde@ut-ngp.{UUCP,ARPA} clyde@ut-sally.{UUCP,ARPA} ihnp4!ut-ngp!clyde