Chemical weapons nonlethal

Department of the Navy (1997). Preliminary Legal Review of Proposed Chemical-Based Nonlethal Weapons, 30 November. Alexandria, VA, USA Office of the Judge Advocate General (International and Operational Division). 

A second type of chemical weapon is rather new but has already attracted considerable military interest throughout the world—the large-scale use on the battlefield of chemicals which are not basically lethal in themselves but which produce a temporary and reversible incapacitation—for example, temporary mental confusion, temporary anesthesia, narcosis, paralysis, temporary blindness. Such chemicals used in conjunction with other nonnuclear arms could contribute to the success of a military operation, with a significant reduction in loss of life—particularly in comparison to the casualties associated with nuclear use. A situation where nonlethal weapons might be of considerable significance is found in so-called limited wars, or less than total wars, where military operations are limited in scale, area, participants, and degree of violence. In such wars it is desirable to stamp out aggression at the earliest possible moment and with minimum loss of life and property. 

We cannot afford to ignore the problems which may be posed by the military use of nonlethal incapacitating chemical weapons, either overtly or covertly. The wide variety of drugs which influence either the mind of man or his body represent an ever-increasing challenge to our ability to discover such drugs, to determine how they act, and to erect defenses against them. 

M. L. Wheelis, "Nonlethal" chemical weapons - a Faustian bargain, Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2003, 74-8, available at http // www. is sues. org/issues/19.3 /wheelis. htm. 

The Soviets tended to use chemical weapons much like the Italians did in Ethiopia and like the U.S. Army had used nonlethal agents in Vietnam. One military writer summed up the general lesson learned ... 

Uhe stockpile (the subject of the Amy s Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program) consists of (1) bulk containers of nerve and blister agents and (2) munitions, including rockets, mines, bombs, projectiles, and spray tanks, loaded with nerve or blister agents. Buried chemical warfare materiel, recovered chemical warfare materiel, binary weapons (in which two nonlethal components are mixed after firing to yield a lethal nerve agent), former production facilities, and miscellaneous chemical warfare materiel are not included in the stockpile. The disposition of these five classes of materials is the subject of a separate Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Pro-... 

In the hospitals, the survivors were cut off from any communications with the outside and their relatives were not allowed to visit them. An incorrect list of hospitals for victims was released. The main problem was the lack of information about those dealing with the identification and characterization of the chemical used and the unavailability of known antidotes (e.g. naloxon) by medical staff treating the victims (Bajgar et al, 2007a). It appeared from this event that there were compounds not explicitly enumerated in the CWC and therefore not controlled by this Convention. Fentanyl can be considered as a nonlethal weapon (a group of so-called calmatives) and these chemicals can also be used to incapacitate animals of course, its use against humans is not excluded (Bajgar, 2006 Hess et al, 2005). 

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