Our
view
Non-lethal
weapons needed
About
a week ago120 hostages died when Russian
forces used incapacitating gas to gain control
of a group of Chechen separatists who had
taken a theatre with 750 people hostage.
Russian officials said that the gas was
not supposed to be fatal.
In
light of the deaths of the 120 hostages,
the National Research Council urged the
Navy and Marine Corps to focus more on the
development of non-lethal weapons to control
crowds and provide and protect security
for military bases on Monday.
As
of now, non-lethal weapons like bad smelling
chemicals, or psychological methods such
as playing calming music during riots or
speaking to people in their own language
have not been studied adequately.
The
National Research Council recommended that
the Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal
Weapons Directorate put more priority on
exploring new ideas and improving the ability
to study non-lethal weapons' effectiveness.
The
council also recommended that the department
establish centers to study non-lethal weapons
effect on people and equipment, establish
an approval process, establish a working
group to actively manage non-lethal weapons
development and increase non-lethal weapons
research and development in general.
However,
as reasonable as these recommendations are,
non-lethal weapons programs do have their
critics. Critics said that the Research
Council's report is irresponsible and dangerous
because it will be used by the Pentagon
to increase their chemical weapons development
efforts resulting in potential disaster
for arms control. Critics also argue that
the report could cause a destabilization
of controls on chemical weapons.
Regardless
of what critics say, the study and development
of non-lethal weaponry is necessary to insure
that innocent people are not made into victims
during crowd controlling or other situations.
Contrary to what critics argue, there is
nothing to lose when increasing non-lethal
weapons research.
The
U.S. military is already researching the
possibility of using drugs such as Valium
in spray form to calm crowds. Tear gas,
rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades are
some non-fatal weapons that are already
being used by the military. No disasters
have occurred as of yet due to the use of
these methods.
Research
for non-lethal weaponry should continue
and increase. The National Research Council's
recommendations should be followed. There
is no valid reason not to take all measures
possible to reduce the number of fatalities
in any crowd-controlling situation.
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