Kamikaze Warfare
One month ago, on April 6, the topic here was chemical and biological warfare. In the intervening weeks, we have had a preview of the devastation of war where the primary weapon is biological agents.
To recapitulate last month’s discussion, the super secret activities of Fort Derrick, Maryland, were mentioned. One of the agents being investigated then was a flu virus that could devastate a community by incapacitating most of the residents for about two weeks, but with relatively few fatalities.
A problem with that “weapon,” however, was how to introduce it into the target community. At the time, water seemed to be the only agent capable of spreading the germ or virus and there were problems of getting it through municipal water purification systems.
Now fast forward to today. The country is incapacitated by a virus that is easily transmitted from person to person. The recovery time for those who become infected is 14 days. Does that sound like the Fort Derrick flu?
There is no question about the origin of this pandemic. The source is China.
Early on, Chinese authorities claimed that the virus probably originated from the wild animals that were regularly sold as human food in Wuhan, China. After a few weeks, however, U.S. intelligence services announced that the virus was from a “lab” in Wuhan. Those services claimed further that the virus got into the Wuhan community by accident.
“Very Interesting!,” as Sergeant Schulz would say on the old Hogans’ Heroes TV show. Is that “lab” the Chinese equivalent of our Fort Derrick? Was that lab being surveilled by our intelligence? How could they have identified the source in that community of 8,365,000, inhabitants so quickly?
I believe the answer is that the lab in question is where China is doing research on chemical and biological weapons. I believe further that the so called lab technicians there have discovered a biological weapon that has the same effects as that flu weapon of a half century ago, but one that can be easily introduced into enemy territory.
COVID-19 got into this country by a few individuals who may not have known they were carriers of the virus flying from the Wuhan area to international airports on our West Coast. Look at how quickly and widely the virus then spread throughout the country.
So how could this tiny virus invisible to the naked eye become a weapon of war?
Currently, we know that the virus now holding the U.S. on its knees has a short lifespan outside the human body. Depending on environmental conditions, the virus can last anywhere from 24 hours on cardboard to seven days on plastic and stainless steel.
The scientists who play with this bug every day might be able to finagle its life span on clothing material to much longer times. Then they could recruit or draft several thousand “Kamikaze” agents to spread the disease among its enemies.
The agents would be booked in groups of five or six on flights into every major airport in the target country. They would be booked on scattered seats on every flight. Heavily infected clothing would be crammed into every one of their luggage pieces. During flight, each agent would open his carry on bag and rummage around to stir up the virus into the planes air system.
After landing, the agents would frequent as many buses, subways, and other public transportation services to and around the nation’s capitol and other government facilities. The same would be going on around military bases and sites where planes, tanks, and ammunition are manufactured.
If the virus these theoretical Kamikaze agents were spreading was as disabling and deadly as the one currently devastating our country, how long could a target country defend itself?
So here’s the perspective.
Are we returning to the very first type of warfare—individual human against individual human?
If the assumptions discussed above are correct, the answer is yes.
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