US Destroys Last of Chemical Weapons Stockpile

Facts

• On Friday, US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that the US had eradicated the last of its chemical weapons stockpile when it destroyed the last sarin nerve agent-filled M55 rocket at the Blue Grass Army Depot in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky.¹
• This completes a process of destruction that the US had been conducting at the US Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and at Blue Grass ahead of a Sept. 30, 2023, deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention for all signatories to destroy their chemical weapons.²
• Chemical weapons were first used when they killed at least 100K people during World War I, and countries continued to stockpile them despite a ban by the Geneva Convention.³
• The Chemical Weapons Convention took effect in 1997, with 193 countries signing on. Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan did not sign the treaty.⁴
• US Pres. Biden, meanwhile, claimed that Syria and Russia are suspected of maintaining undeclared weapons programs.⁵

Sources: ¹CBS, ²Reuters, ³Al Jazeera, ⁴Guardian and ⁵Business Insider.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Forbes. It took decades longer than expected, but the US destruction of its chemical weapon stockpile was a massive undertaking that required great caution with extremely dangerous materials. What matters is that the US came in ahead of the deadline, and now for the first time, an international body can claim the eradication of a full category of mass-destruction weapons.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Independent. At the same time the US destroyed the last of its chemical weapons, it agreed to share some of its most controversial and dangerous weapons — cluster munitions that are banned by more than 120 countries — with Ukraine for its war with Russia. The US shouldn’t be bragging. It should be embarrassed over its hypocrisy and warmongering.