Iraq has enough germ weapons to kill everyone on Earth

According to the New York Times last week, Iraq finally revealed the truth about their chemical weapons projects: "Iraq dropped its denials and grudgingly admitted that it had run an elaborate program to produce germ weapons, eventually confessing that it had made enough deadly microbes to kill all the people on earth several times over." As if this weren't enough, it also turns out that not only does the Iraqi government implicitly despise the Jewish people, they also had explicit plans to make good on that sentiment: "Just before the gulf war in 1991, President Saddam Hussein's son-in-law began a crash military program intended to give Iraq the ability to wipe out Israel's population with germ weapons, an Iraqi general told newspapers. MIG fighters, each carrying 250 gallons of microbes, were to be flown by remote control to release anthrax over Israel. One pilotless plan was flight-tested with simulated germs just before the war began, but the attack was never attempted" (New York Times, February 26, 1998, A1, A10). The added remark that the "attack was never attempted" was, of course, superfluous; it is highly likely that, had Iraq actually sent anthrax-loaded jets across the border in 1991, we would have heard about it by now.

So now the horrifying truth is out. What I find amazing about the whole incident is not that Iraq actually possesses germ weapons (this I suspected all along). Rather, it is the ridiculous political nature of the whole affair which both bewilders and terrifies me. That is, to casually read that Iraq has the capacity to annihilate all of mankind numerous times is a strangely surreal experience; the words seemed almost unreal upon the page. I was immediately shocked, and only after a few seconds did I really come to consciously understand the ramifications of this reality. Enough deadly microbes to kill all the people on earth several times over!? This is hardly the kind of news I expected to appear anywhere but it enormous letters stretched across the entire front page of the Times. Granted, the article was on the front page, but the enormous importance of such news should not merely appear casually beside an article on economic affairs. Don't get me wrong-this is not a criticism of the Times nor of journalism. I only mean to emphasize that certain world events are so breathtaking that a 10-point font does them little justice.

Of course, it's no new thing that any country has the capacity to level the planet. The U.S., as we all know, has had hugely destructive powers ever since the Manhattan Project. It is, however, a little unnerving to discover that an aggressive, totalitarian nation is now in on the game. Again, I realize that this is not entirely new-ever since the U.S.S.R. dissolved there's been a general fear that the nuclear weapons will fall into the wrong hands (need I cite True Lies, that amazing cinematic experience?) Nevertheless, prior to this Times article, I still held on to the (innocent) belief that maybe, just maybe, Iraq really didn't have the weapons. All the evidence pointed to the contrary, but then again, maybe we were just a little over eager to see red in their eyes.

At any rate, the truth is out: not only does Iraq have a stockpile of chemical weapons, but they had very specific plans on how to implement them. The truly comic element in this whole scandal is, I think, what it will be like for the U.N. inspectors once they finally penetrate the germ development plants. I mean, imagine the following scenario: Mr. United Nations Weapons Inspector has just arrived at the plant where Iraqi scientists have labored intensely for the last seven years to produce weapons of mass destruction. The friendly, Iraqi P.R. guy hands Mr. Inspector a cup of coffee, and the two of them shake hands. Then, pointing at a 5000 gallon tank covered with forbidding bio-hazard signs which could only contain something very unpleasant, Mr. Inspector says: "By the way, you'll have to get rid of that cauldron of death over there." The Iraqi scientists are only happy to comply, donning their gas-masks and going to work. While the immense container with the capacity to massacre thousands is slowly dismantled, Mr. Inspector and the P.R. guy happily chat about the Olympics.

Somehow, it seems hardly likely to me that the "re-education" process will be that easy. It's not like the Iraqi scientists didn't know what they were doing. In the same way that both Oppenheimer and Einstein were acutely aware of the possible consequences of their research, it is logically impossible that the Iraqi scientists didn't have a clue. And it's not like a departmental memo from Mr. Hussein could have cleared things up at all: "To all scientists at work on the project code-named KILLMANKIND: I just wanted to clear up a few misconceptions about the goals of your project. The massive quantities of anthrax you're producing are not, repeat not, going to be used in any harmful way. In fact, we have a separate team developing useful implementations of anthrax, and we hope to better humanity by our efforts." I don't think anyone with a modicum of critical thought would be fooled.

To top it off, Iraq had to admit that they had plans to obliterate Israel. You'd think they would have enough common sense to keep publicly quiet about official plans for genocide. But no, having already confessed to owning a colossal quantity of chemical weapons, they didn't have the cleverness to lie about what they planned to with it. They could easily have announced: "Yes, well, we do, as a matter of fact, have the capacity to level the planet. However, we were planning on using these weapons as a new treatment for hair-growth." You might object that such a statement is hardly convincing (let's be serious: what else do you plan to do with thousands of gallons of anthrax?), but considering Iraq's politicking prior to their "grudging admission," it strikes me as strange that they did not seek to claim further innocence. Nevertheless, the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, and we've got to decide if we want to let it run wild.

So what do we do now? Thankfully, the majority of the international community is not content to simply forgive and forget. The question is really this: what do you do with a known terrorist dictatorship which has a history of aggression, and which now has the frightful capacity to commit widespread genocide? Economic sanctions? Military occupation? At the very least, I hope that if the Times ever has the phrase "U.S. Nukes Iraq" somewhere on the front page, it's in really big letters.

-Stephan Gross