|
There were about 1.3 million casualties caused by gas in WW1 - mostly on the Western Front. However there were "only" 90,000 fatalities. Contemporary accounts say that the troops of the time considered gas a more humane weapon compared to everything else they faced.
Chemical and biological weapons were banned in 1925 under the Geneva Protocol which most nations have adhered to since.
Even the Nazis, who had access to nerve gases before WW2, didn't use them - exactly why is still a matter of debate.
It has taken a particularly nasty variety of totalitarian ruler to use chemical weapons since WW2 - such shining examples of humanitarian rule like Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad.
Charlie
|