As you may have seen in some of our other
shows, while it may seem a contradiction to some people, in conflicts all sides should
follow a set of rules concerning the ethics of warfare. You have likely heard of the Geneva Conventions,
which are a set of treaties and protocols that ask countries if they should fight against
each other, they should at least try to do that following humanitarian principles. For example, countries should care for the
wounded, they should not abuse POWs, they should respect a soldier’s religion, and
they should not use weapons deemed unfair play on the battleground- and it’s the latter
which we will discuss today in this episode of The Infographics Show- banned weapons in
warfare. Blinding Laser Weapons
We will start with weapons that sound kind of modern, and these are the tools that could
be used to destroy the eyesight of enemies. These types of weapons were banned under Protocol
IV of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and the protocols covered weapons
that could permanently blind someone, not just temporarily dazzle a person. Do such weapons exist? Motherboard wrote in 2014 that indeed the
USA has many lasers that could permanently blind a person, but the country does not use
them for that purpose. That’s against the law. That article stated that such weapons were
being used to dazzle people, but sometimes there was a fine line between dazzling and
doing much worse. The U.S. media has said China has some very
similar technology, calling some weapons blinding lasers, and while no soldiers have been blinded
as yet, the U.S. military has asked if these weapons don’t breach the protocols. Landmines
Possibly a soldier’s worse nightmare are landmines, explosives which have been used
in various war movies to show us just how barbaric war can be. Under the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions
on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices, landmines are now at least restricted. Non-detectable anti-personnel mines are not
allowed, as are mines that are placed outside fenced areas. According to the UN, a lot of damage is still
being done as there are still so many mines lying around the world. According to an article written by UNICEF,
there are around 110 million mines globally that are just waiting for someone to walk
over them. There is no date on this article, but it said
100s of people around the world are still being killed by landmines every year. As for booby traps, you can find lots of articles
written about how they were used during the Vietnam War. Thankfully, in conventional warfare these
things are now also banned. Flame Throwers
Another weapon you may have seen in numerous war movies is the flame-thrower. These are called incendiary weapons, and they
are now banned for certain uses under the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on
the use of Incendiary Weapons. They are not completely banned, it just depends
on what you intend to do with them. You cannot, for example, use them to destroy
houses and the people inside those houses. You are not even supposed to use them to burn
down forests or even bushes. You can, however, use them for clearing woodland
if that land is thought to be hiding combatants or other things related to combat. Historians tell us that all sides during the
two world wars were big on using these devices, mostly to do things like empty trenches and
holes where soldiers might be hiding. The website The Balance tells us, “During
the Korean and Vietnam Wars United States Marines also used flamethrowers. In those combat environments, flamethrowers
were used to destroy forts, bunkers, and vehicles. They were also used to inflict psychological
terror on enemy soldiers who were terrified of being burned alive.” Not surprisingly, these weapons were very
controversial, and in 1978 the U.S. said enough is enough, we are not using them again. The same goes for napalm, while it’s not
completely banned, it can’t really be used in warfare to kill people. Cluster Bombs
Many countries around the world have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty. These are bombs designed to be dropped and
then expel a number of smaller bombs, sometimes called bomblets. For this reason, sometimes in the U.S. they
got the nickname popcorn bombs or firecrackers. As you can imagine, these things can be a
bit unpredictable and so it’s not always easy to judge what will be destroyed. This is the reason many countries have now
agreed that they should be used no more. This only happened fairly recently, though,
and you can find examples of when these kinds of bombs were used by the UK, the U.S. and
many other countries not that long ago. One of the main reasons for trying to stop
the use of these things is that those bomblets might remain unexploded, and then one day
a very unfortunate civilian comes across one of them. Nerve Gas
If any of you have seen the TV show “Homeland” you will know that possibly one of the most
frightening things in this world is what’s known as nerve gas. In that show the use of Sarin, a kind of nerve
gas, was explored. While Homeland could be said to be quite implausible
at times, how it depicted Sarin was by no means over the top. What basically happens when you are hit by
nerve gas is your body malfunctions, your nervous system stops working. Internal hemorrhaging happens, and death is
likely to follow. Before that you might start foaming at the
mouth, suffer convulsions and then pee and poo yourself. Your organs will then stop working, and that’s
the end. Mustard Gas
This is another nasty chemical agent that does very nasty things to people. You can see what it did by reading about the
two world wars. Those that experienced mustard gas poisoning
might experience temporary blindness, they might suffer horrible burns on their skin,
and their lungs can be severely damaged. If they don’t die, soldiers often had to
endure horrific pain from severe burns. Nowadays it’s unlikely you’ll see the
use of this gas as most countries have ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. Mustard Gas is known as a blister agent, but
other gases such as Phosgene Gas and Hydrogen Cyanide are also banned. Tear Gas
You might be surprised to hear that tear gas is banned in war, just because it is still
quite regularly used on citizens. It is still a chemical weapon, but it is one
of the least harmful weapons of its kind. For that reason it can still be used to disperse
crowds of rioters, but using it on the battleground would be sending a bad message. In a riot, it is believed this gas can prevent
a more deadly, or at least aggressive, use of force. That’s why it is still being used today. Spike Pit
It sounds like something John Rambo might come up with, but these pits were used in
some conflicts until they were outlawed under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Also known as punji sticks, they were basically
a hole in the ground with some very sharp sticks. The hole was then covered with something so
that anyone walking in its direction wouldn’t notice anything. When it was stepped on the soldier would fall
into the pit and land on the spikes. This would cause severe pain and it would
be incredibly difficult to get out of this trap. It’s also said that sometimes the spikes
would be covered with poison, or even human feces, so that infection would occur. The point would not be to kill someone, but
to maim them and so slow down everyone else. Biological Weapons
You may have seen in some of our other shows that militaries all over the world have spent
a considerable amount of time in trying to invent ways to spread disease among enemies. Sometimes called germ warfare, we might look
back to the 18th century when the English military were busy trying to spread smallpox
through some native American societies. We are told that with a green light given
by Winston Churchill, tularemia, anthrax, brucellosis, and botulism were made into weapons
during world war two. It wasn’t only the British though, France,
Germany, the USA and Japan were all busy weaponizing disease. You name it, all the leading nations of the
world were doing the same thing, at times weaponizing even the bubonic plague. Thanks to the Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention we hope that those days might be over, although that won’t have any effect
on the work that terrorists do. We might also add that in the past such weapons
weren’t only designed to hurt people directly, but they were there to spoil crops and make
livestock sick. Dirty Bombs
These things were designed to radiate an area and so make that place uninhabitable. These did not have a blast, but as we said,
just created a lot of radiation over a given area. We are told that they likely wouldn’t even
have caused that much damage, but they instilled fear in communities and so were useful. Bat Bombs
We have designated an entire show to these utterly strange things, so you should take
a look at that. What these were is what they sound like, which
were bats carrying small bombs. They were designed by the USA to fly over
Japan, and there lots of bats would be released and each bat would go find a safe place to
hide down in the city. Many buildings at the time were made from
wood, and when the bat bomb went off a fire would start. Such things these days would be banned under
the Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. You can’t exactly control where the bat
will go, and you are not allowed to use weapons when you have no idea what the target will
be. This could cause untold harm to civilians. Invisible Fragments
An entire protocol in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons is Protocol I, which
restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments. This is simple enough, you can’t employ
any kind of weapon which might leave bits of itself in another person that cannot be
seen, even with x-ray. That means you are not allowed to make a weapon
that leaves plastic in the body, as this can be hard to find. You can use plastic in a weapon’s production,
but plastic shouldn’t be part of the design primarily to hit the person or persons. We should add at the end here that many countries
have agreed not to use these weapons, but others have not signed the treaties. Some countries have also signed, but done
that with what are called “reservations.” Do you think these weapons should have been
banned? Would you like to see anything else added
to this list? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to watch our other video What
Is Banned In War. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
