Why is using chemical and biological weapons considered inhuman?

But using napalm-like incendiary devices as anti-personnel weapons is acceptable?

US used napalm-like firebombs during Iraq invasion: Pentagon official

So why is not OK to drop a mustard gas bomb on your enemy and make him puke his lungs out, but it’s OK to incinerate him with flaming napalm?

They can be used to kill all the people affected without destroying the infrastructure and equipment in the area, thus making it a perfect weapon for ethic cleansing. It is also most effective against unprepared and unprotected targets, so it is very likely to be used against civilians, which is one of the major rules of war. Biological weapons can also be persistant and unpredictable, modified versions of smallpox could theoretically kill off humanity. They could easily affect non-combatants on either side unintentionally.

Ultimately these weapons are not used because they are not reliable, they are unpredictable, heavily subject to weather and are useless against prepared forces. They also cause a lot of public backlash, which is very important these days when support for a war can make or break a government. The rules are a paper shield that will never stop them being used or developed.

When some of these points change then the gloves will come off, a serious war could make a side desperate enough to use anything. The weapons could become more effective and reliable so their use can become a valid tactic. In the next war we could see cities being cleared by chemical warheads (we’ve already seen towns), solidiers blinded on masse by laser and man made plagues going out of control.

All very cheerful stuff, so please make love not war, or get planning your post-apocalyptic lifestyle.

You are just as dead either way. Is there something particularly more horrific about using Napalm than dropping a Cluster Bomb? Ultimately, the only reason people don’t use Chem/Bio weaponry is becuase they don’t want other people to use it against them, which is an entirely different matter.

Eh. Maybe. Such weapons are unreliable, albeit nasty, and means you opponent can use them, too, without violating the Geneva Convention.

I think part of it harks back to the idea that combatants should be given a sporting chance to defend themselves. E.g. guns fine as you can see your enemy and can defend yourself. Aerial bombing OK as in principle you can fire back. Not true with biological weapons. Also guns etc are more targetted (limiting collatoral damage) and once the blast is over have no more long term effects. But chemical and biological weapons are indiscriminate, hard to target, and may contaminate an area for a long time.

Objectively speaking, napalm is a jelly, while chemical and biological weapons are typically gaseous (or aerosol) which ostensibly could easily drift outside target areas. This means that napalm is marginally more controllable.

Which is not to say napalm is any less horrible in a practical context–if you’re dead, you’re dead–doesn’t matter terribly much how it happened (other than perhaps the amount of suffering before death). Yet conventional area bombing, artillery, or even just a few heavy machine gun squads can effectively kill just as many people given enough time. The “rules” of war inevitably don’t make much sense because war itself doesn’t usually make much sense. Ideally we’d outlaw war altogether, but most would agree that’s a bit too optimistic at this point. The international conventions exist as a tacit recognition that wars will happen, that people will tend to use the most efficient methods of killing each other because whoever kills more people is more likely to win. Since we apparently can’t put down the beast of war permanently, the best we can do is put some rather arbitrary limits on him in order to reduce the carnage somewhat.

If at some point napalm is banned, I would view it as a positive thing. I’m not holding my breath, though.

I have never been in anything but a “serious war.” What would a non-serious war look like?

Check out some Japanese Anime for an idea.