In their article, Jay Davis and Don Prosnitz use the now common phrase “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs). I have yet to see a working, decisive definition of the term.
According to some sources, a Scud missile with a conventional high-explosive warhead is a WMD, but a flight of B-52 bombers carrying tons of high explosives apparently is not. What about a bunker-buster bomb, or an artillery shell with a mustard-gas warhead? In public policy debates, especially those regarding warfare, clear definitions of the key words or phrases would be helpful. What is a WMD? What do the experts mean when they use this term?
© 2003 American Institute of Physics.
2003
American Institute of Physics
