A
Alan Browne
Pudentame said:The distinction in the definitions are from a STANAG - STandard NAto
AGreement... so everyone is using the same terminology & understands the
what each other mean. So the people most likely to have to deal with
them in the consequences of use.
For military purposes the difference is how those weapons affect the
battlefield. Generally the distinction is whether you can "continue the
mission" if attacked with the weapon. Nuclear weapons have significantly
greater effects (order of magnitude) on the ability of military forces
to maneuver, hold territory, engage the "enemy" and reach the military
objective than Chemical/Biological weapons.
Google provides a list of sites where a search term appears, not
definitions of the search terms themselves. Google does not
differentiate between sites using a term correctly and those that are not.
Many carelessly confuse the two. I don't.
WMD is generally (including in NATO, US forces and most everywhere else
defined as I stated in my other post.
""Research for this paper identified more than 40 different definitions
of WMD.29 Some of the definitions with official standing are identified
in appendix A (used in the U.S. executive branch), appendix B (enacted
into U.S. Federal law), appendix C (versions used internationally), and
appendix D (enacted into U.S. state laws). Almost all of the more than 40
definitions listed in the appendices fit into 1 of 5 alternative
definitions,
allowing for some slight variations in meaning.30
n WMD as a synonym for nuclear, biological, and chemical
(NBC) weapons31
n WMD as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons32
n WMD as CBRN and high explosive (CBRNE) weapons33
n WMD as weapons that cause massive destruction or kill large
numbers of people, and do not necessarily include or exclude
CBRN weapons34
n WMD as weapons of mass destruction or effect, potentially including
CBRNE weapons and other means of causing massive disruption,
such as cyberattacks.35""
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Occassional_Papers/CSWMD/OP4.pdf
Refers.
Cheers,
Alan