Psychological Aspect of Chemical Weapons

This week my Diigo posts were on the psychological aspects of chemical weaponry and what makes them different from other weapons of war. The first article I posted is from the National Post on August of 2013. This article delves into the reasoning behind the immense amounts of fear caused by chemical weapons. In the Syrian civil war thus far, over 100,000 people have been killed including innocent women, children, and other civilians. Many have been killed by chemical weapons such as chlorine gas. Chemical weapons cause an abundant amount of fear not seen in the use of other weapons for many reasons. First, a person cannot see or smell the chemical before it already begins to deteriorate and kill them. Second, the chemical kills in minutes. Lastly, they are indiscriminate killers. The next article I posted was from the Huffington Post from October of 2013. This article explains the reasoning behind the need to respond to chemical weapon attacks compared to other weapons of war. The main reason behind the response is the fact that chemical weapons are invisible. When people can’t see the weapon and they are not sure if they are going to be affected by it at any time it creates an abundant amount of terror that other weapons do not. The fear can even cause symptoms seen in chemical attacks that are not actually present. Both of the articles I posted look into the psychological aspects and in particular the fear that chemical weapons cause. These readings reminded me of the movie “The Square” that we watched in class. “The Square” showed first hand how war and chemicals such as tear gas have psychological affects on individuals. We witnessed one of the main actors trembling and repeating the same statement, frozen in fear over the violence he witnessed around him. Just as described in the articles above, fear can change the body, the psychological affects of war can be just as detrimental as the physical affects.

8 thoughts on “Psychological Aspect of Chemical Weapons

  1. Effective way to highlight one issue to represent the oppression women are facing in lots of different respects. Good job!

  2. Thanks for tying in news not usually highlighted; it offers a much needed different perspective towards the issue.

  3. I think it’s great that you looked at both the rebels’ use of chemical weapons as well as the Assad regime – reminding people that it is not just regime that is participating in the immense violence of the Syrian civil war.

  4. Really interesting examination of the difference between chemical weapons and more conventional weapons of mass destruction. The psychological effects of chemical weapons that you describe sound uncannily similar to the general understanding of what terrorism is and how it works.

  5. I don’t know if I can believe that the use of chemical weapons were used by the rebels. Where could they have acquired these WMD’s? In my opinion it had to be he Syrian regime and the evidence is mounting.

  6. Your research on weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons in Syria is intriguing and must have been interesting to research. You mentioned such weaponry is considered a “silent killer,” which I find terrifying. Overall, great presentation. Good job!

  7. I really did not think about the rebels using chemical weapons. I always saw them not using intense weapons. I thought they really just used rocks and fists. I always thought it was the governments using this kind of stuff, not the rebels. I really liked seeing how everyone else was involved in Syria’s choices.

  8. Wow! I didn’t know all of that about chemical weapons! I like that you discussed a psychological aspect of the chemical weapons. Your presentation was very well organized and informative!

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