Thoughts on bio-warfare

[Vesayen]

I do not mean releasing germs. I mean releasing foreign species into a country.

This has to my knowledge never been done in warfare, though of course humans have done it for thousands of years to change the places we live at.

So, how come no nation has ever given serious thought or effort to try this? I would think releasing certain foreign critters into the breadbasket areas of a foreign country could cripple their aggriculture. It would be easy to attempt, even on a small scale and would take a few years for the effect to be felt, depending on what sort of critter is released. Insects are the sort of critter I have in mind.

Why did for example, the soviets not try this?

[Hauptman]

Argentina already has done this to California and the Riviera.

Those blasted Argentinians. I'll get you for this.

[snoopy369]

Well...

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Hauptman
Argentina already has done this to California and the Riviera.

Those blasted Argentinians. I'll get you for this.

On purpose or by accident in regular commerce?

[Zkribbler]

Who was it that sent bunny rabbits to Australia?

[Aeson]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=177288

[Elok]

Starvation doesn't seem to be quite the weapon you'd expect it to be. Look at North Korea, now celebrating their umpteenth glorious year of triumphant People's Famine. Hell, look at sub-Saharan Africa. Civil wars abound even where not one man in five has enough to eat.

Also, you wouldn't want to do this to a country you were planning to occupy. Bombed factories can be rebuilt, emptied villages can be repopulated, but an invasive species is $#%@! forever. If you were aiming to wipe out their agriculture you could do it in a much more controlled fashion with lots and lots of Roundup. The Colombians were thought to have Roundup-resistant cocaine last I heard, but I don't know of any Roundup-resistant food crops.

[Vesayen]

Starvation may not be effective against a closed authoritarian society with a low standard of living like North Korea.

Starvation would be a very effective and cheap weapon to use against the U.S. or many European nations.

[Sandman]

What sort of foreign species release is going to cause a developed state to starve? It'll still take years to get established. Besides, they can just import predators.

[onodera]

Some people think that Amerikanskies used Colorado beetles as a bioweapon to destroy Soviet potato farms.

[BeBMan]

Maybe one should define real goals first before going over to means. Take "Starvation" - what is it good for? If you want to destroy another country, and masskill the people you have other and much more effective means today. If you want to conquer territory and rule over the people there it's a stupid idea to bring it down so much that you - as the occupier - have to supply it from zero. Same if you only want to install a friendlier regime. And don't forget that the means we use in warfare are only theoretically unlimited. In praxis you may find out that certain forms of warfare come with political costs so high that they are unusable for many scenarios. Ask yourself why the US didn't simply wipe out all of Afghanistan (as well as the Soviets didn't)....

[onodera]

Originally posted by BeBro
Ask yourself why the US didn't simply wipe out all of Afghanistan (as well as the Soviets didn't)....

I do all the time. Less drugs and a pretty glass desert to take tourists to would be a much better deal.

[BeBMan]

Tourists will overrun the place once they realized that they can wear NBC protection stuff all the time there!

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by onodera
Some people think that Amerikanskies used Colorado beetles as a bioweapon to destroy Soviet potato farms.

That was the british, they did it to us too. Now we have the yellow submarine.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Elok
Starvation doesn't seem to be quite the weapon you'd expect it to be. Look at North Korea, now celebrating their umpteenth glorious year of triumphant People's Famine. Hell, look at sub-Saharan Africa. Civil wars abound even where not one man in five has enough to eat.

Also, you wouldn't want to do this to a country you were planning to occupy. Bombed factories can be rebuilt, emptied villages can be repopulated, but an invasive species is $#%@! forever. If you were aiming to wipe out their agriculture you could do it in a much more controlled fashion with lots and lots of Roundup. The Colombians were thought to have Roundup-resistant cocaine last I heard, but I don't know of any Roundup-resistant food crops.

Why do you think Monsanto got into the GM food business in the first place? To develop crops resistant to Round-up, so that farmers could drench their fields with the stuff and not hurt their crops. I know they have a soy bean that is resistant, and I think there is also Round-up Ready corn as well.