THE RECENT ratification by the U.S. Senate of the Chemical Weapons Convention - after months of lobbying by the Clinton administration - was long overdue.
Chemical weapons, sometimes called "the poor man's nuclear bomb," have been proliferating in recent years faster than nuclear weapons. That's why it's so necessary for the United States to take the lead in halting this spread - and signing the convention is a symbolic key to mounting an anti-chemical weapons campaign.Most importantly, perhaps, it allows the United States to take part in international inspections, which will help deter rogue states from amassing lethal chemicals to use against their enemies. Of course, many of the worst offenders are not signatories to the treaty. But by bringing most of the civilized world under the same regulatory umbrella, chances are that the few remaining holdouts will be far more isolated in their endeavors than before.
The story of the global chemical weapons buildup is a simple one, with familiar characters.
One of the first rogue states to begin using these weapons was Iraq, which got its start from the former Soviet Union. The Soviets were quite willing to export chemical weapons technology, though they kept their nuclear technology a closely guarded secret. In 1982, the hard-pressed Iraqis used tear gas to roll back an Iranian offense, and in 1983-84 they escalated their chemical warfare to include mustard gas and a nerve agent, which decimated Iranian attacks.
Having been on the receiving end of such chemical weapons use, Iran soon began developing its own stockpile of the material.
Other outlaw Middle East countries like Syria and Libya also have chemical weapons programs. Until the Iraqis surged ahead of them in the late 1980s, the Syrians probably had the most developed chemical arsenal in the Middle East - courtesy of an extensive Soviet military assistance program.
Libya received Soviet chemical weapons training, but the Soviets were reluctant to provide material. So the Libyans secretly bought their wares from other Warsaw Pact countries and illicit sources in Western Europe.
Egypt was actually the first Middle East country to get chemical weapons training, indoctrination and material - including nerve gas - from the Soviets. Throughout the 1960s, high-level Egyptian military officers were trained in Moscow at the Red Banner Academy of Chemical Defense. Egypt used poison gas during the 1963 and 1967 Yemen campaigns.
Yet Egypt was reluctant to use chemical weapons against the Israelis in 1967 and 1973, fearing terrible retaliation from Israeli forces that also were well-armed with chemical weapons. Israel's surge to develop this program began just two weeks before the 1967 Six Day War, when Israeli intelligence discovered a stockpile of artillery shells loaded with Soviet nerve gas in the Egyptian-held Sinai peninsula.
That set off a frantic scramble for protective gear and led eventually to the existing Israeli stockpiles of nerve and mustard gas.
Perhaps no country will be as affected by the new ban as Taiwan, which has made these weapons a priority since 1979. The Taiwanese defense strategy, according to highly classified CIA documents, calls for unrestricted counterattack with chemical weapons whether invading forces use them or not.