Re: Panic more dangerous than WMD

[maury <maury@webtexas.com>]

Hi Kim,

Thanks for mentioning CBR -- I had forgotten that one. I was just irritated by

continuous invention of new acronyms that are merelt buzzwords which seem to me

to contribute nothing more than added confusion to public discourse. I see

little hope that public or congressional understanding of WMD issues would be

helped by continuously changing the acronyms. Seems to me that such pretention

only contributes to obfuscation. And the worthy addition of RDD is duly noted.

<g>

Cheers,

Maury                   maury@webtexas.com

===================

"Kim D. Merritt" wrote:



> >What pray tell are NBC weapons (or WMD to use the new acronym)  besides  "

> >...chemical, biological or radiological ...."  Do we now have some new

> classes of secret weapons?

>

> Nuclear devices.  I'm not saying it all makes sense, but clearly

> radiological devices and nuclear weapons are not mutually inclusive.   I

> remember when NBC was CBR, that doesn't mean that anything really changed.

> The government just happened to find an acronym that caught on.

>

> I tried looking up the legal definition of WMD but it turns out there are

> several, and then again several interpretations of them.  One definition even

> includes the use of a non-NBC weapon in a manner which results in local

> authorities being too overwhelmed to deal with the response (e.g. the

> Oklahoma City bombing).  Okay, a dirty bomb may not actually kill a bunch

> of people, does that really have to be the dividing line?  The resulting

> impact to the community will have essentially the same psychosocial impact as

> if it did kill lots of people.  People are scared of what they do not

> understand.  I'm pretty sure that they not going to want to take the time to

> learn about it now, and they certainly are not going to listen to the

> government tell them that they are going to be okay in the immediate

> aftermath of the use of a RDD (figured that I would throw in the only missing

> acronym).  So where does that leave us?

>

> What a surprise, a politician said something dumb...

>

> Kim Merritt

> Radiation/Laser Safety Officer

> HazMed, Inc.

> NASA Langley Research Center

> Hampton, VA

> (757)864-3210

> <mailto:k.merritt@larc.nasa.gov>

>

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