In The Sunday Times today: Oliver Stone's Talk Radio
The apparent confusion is not just about politics. It is a question of definition, experts said yesterday: when is a weapon one of mass destruction?
Experts who have studied this subject during and after the Cold War accept that the definition has become more flexible since the days when weapons of mass destruction meant an attack by dozens of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, capable of causing millions of deaths. Today the acronym WMD appears to mean different things to different people.
Experts say that battlefield artillery shells, mortars, short-range rockets or other systems fitted with nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological warheads can all be classed as weapons of mass destruction under the more liberal definition accepted today.
There are two common denominators that have survived the Cold War: by definition, today’s WMD systems in the hands of rogue or potentially hostile states have to be weapons fitted with nuclear, chemical or biological warheads, and the intention of the attacker, whether using short-range or long-range systems, would be to have a strategic impact. In other words, the launching of chemical artillery shells or the dropping of bombs containing biological agents would have consequences far outweighing the size and effectiveness of the weapons themselves.
The decision by Saddam to launch Scuds armed with chemical warheads against Iran in the 1980s killed thousands, but it also transformed that conflict between neighbours into a far more dangerous regional war and stirred the Iraqi dictator to develop even more deadly weapons.
Even conventional weapons can have a strategic impact. Saddam did not have the capability to launch medium-range missiles with chemical or biological warheads beyond his borders last year, but he did attack Kuwait with al-Samoud missiles, with conventional explosives. They caused little damage but the effect among Kuwaitis turned them into weapons of mass panic.
"Preston from the Ordinary Boys to run as a Tory councillor? Whatever next?"
Latest articles from Columnist of the Year
Britain's top polemicist, in The Sunday Times
Explore the authentic food of India and be in with a chance to win a cooking holiday
Is Milan’s Town House Galleria worth its claim? Matt Rudd is the first to check in
Overseas contacts and local business information
2005/54
£25,750
SE England
2006/ 56
£75,000
The Midlands
2005 /55
£118,500
The Midlands
2006/56
£42,850
The Midlands
£six figure salary
Veredus Executive Resourcing
London
£35k + benefits
LMA Recruitment
London
£
n/a
Garfield Robbins International
South East
£25,000 + benefits
IBM
Not specified
A much improved character cottage
£595,000
Two bedroom Victorian conversion
£275,000
Residential development site with planning permission
£1,500,000
Prestigious apartment close to Regents Park
£1,000,000
Ski insurance and annual travel insurance to suit all
POA
Admire China's imperial treasures and glorious landscapes with CTS Horizons
20 days £1995
with Danubius Hotels Group
Pay 2 - stay 3 nights from 109 euro pp
4* packages
14 nights from £599
Contact our advertising teamfor advertising and sponsorship in Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times.
This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here © Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd