A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans (and other life forms) and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e.g. buildings), natural structures (e.g. mountains), or the biosphere in general. The scope and application of the term has evolved and been disputed, often signifying more politically than technically. Coined in reference to aerial bombing with chemical explosives, it has come to distinguish large-scale weaponry of other technologies, such as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear. This differentiates the term from more technical ones such as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons (CBRN).
Read more about Weapon Of Mass Destruction: Early Uses of The Term Weapon of Mass Destruction, Treaties, United States Politics, Media Coverage of WMD, Public Perceptions of WMD, WMD in Popular Culture, Common Hazard Symbols
Famous quotes containing the words weapon of, weapon, mass and/or destruction:
“But what is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of reason.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is almost impossible to be a doctor and an honest man, but it is obscenely impossible to be a psychiatrist without at the same time bearing the stamp of the most incontestable madness: that of being unable to resist that old atavistic reflex of the mass of humanity, which makes any man of science who is absorbed by this mass a kind of natural and inborn enemy of all genius.”
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“There is an eternal vital correspondence between our blood and the sun: there is an eternal vital correspondence between our nerves and the moon. If we get out of contact and harmony with the sun and moon, then both turn into great dragons of destruction against us.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)