Editing Weapon of mass destruction (section)

===Evolution===
During the [[Cold War]], the term "weapons of mass destruction" was primarily a reference to nuclear weapons. At the time, in the [[Western world#Modern political|West]] the euphemism "[[strategic nuclear weapon|strategic weapons]]" was used to refer to the American nuclear arsenal. However, there is no precise definition of the "strategic" category, neither considering range nor [[nuclear weapon yield|yield of the nuclear weapon]].<ref name=e>{{cite book|title=Tactical nuclear weapons : emergent threats in an evolving security environment.|year=2003|publisher=Brassey's|location=Washington DC|isbn=978-1-57488-585-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7VOWkKMTjsC&q=Defensive%20Use%20of%20Tactical%20Nuclear%20Weapons&pg=PA7|edition=1.|editor=Brian Alexander, Alistair Millar|access-date=22 March 2011|page=7}}</ref>

Subsequent to [[Operation Opera]], the destruction of a pre-operational nuclear reactor inside Iraq by the Israeli Air Force in 1981, the Israeli prime minister, [[Menachem Begin]], countered criticism by saying that "on no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against the people of Israel." This policy of pre-emptive action against real or perceived weapons of mass destruction became known as the [[Begin Doctrine]].<ref name="NTI/Isr">[http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/israel/nuclear/ Country Profiles -Israel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135509/http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/israel/nuclear/ |date=2014-10-06 }}, [[Nuclear Threat Initiative]] (NTI), updated May, 2014</ref>

The term "weapons of mass destruction" continued to see periodic use, usually in the context of nuclear [[arms control]]; [[Ronald Reagan]] used it during the 1986 [[Reykjavík Summit]], when referring to the 1967 [[Outer Space Treaty]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/documents/reykjavik/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518185704/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/documents/reykjavik/ |archive-date=18 May 2008 |title=CNN Cold War – Historical Documents: Reagan-Gorbachev transcripts |date=18 May 2008 |access-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> Reagan's successor, [[George H. W. Bush]], used the term in a 1989 speech to the United Nations, primarily in reference to chemical arms.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1DE153CF935A1575AC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |title=Excerpts From Bush's Speech at the Opening of the U.N. General Assembly – |location=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Ussr) |work=The New York Times|date=26 September 1989 |access-date=5 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318194026/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1DE153CF935A1575AC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |archive-date=18 March 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The end of the Cold War reduced U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons as a deterrent, causing it to shift its focus to disarmament. With the 1990 [[invasion of Kuwait]] and 1991 [[Gulf War]], Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs became a particular concern of the first [[Presidency of George H. W. Bush|Bush Administration]].<ref name="newyorkt">{{cite news|author=MICHAEL WINES, Special to The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DD1130F933A0575AC0A966958260 |title=Confrontation in the Gulf; U.S. Explores New Strategies to Limit Weapons of Mass Destruction – |location=IRAQ |work=The New York Times|date=30 September 1990 |access-date=5 August 2010}}</ref> Following the war, [[Bill Clinton]] and other western politicians and media continued to use the term, usually in reference to ongoing attempts to dismantle [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|Iraq's weapons programs]].<ref name="newyorkt"/>
[[File:Image of Nations which are colored if they have nuclear weapons.png|thumb|In early 2019, more than 90% of the world's 13,865 [[List of states with nuclear weapons|nuclear weapons]] were owned by Russia and the United States.<ref>{{cite news |title=Global Nuclear Arsenal Declines, But Future Cuts Uncertain Amid U.S.-Russia Tensions |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/nuclear-weapons-russia-start-inf-warheads/30003088.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=17 June 2019}}</ref>|312x312px]]
After the [[11 September 2001 attacks]] and the [[2001 anthrax attacks]] in the United States, an increased fear of nonconventional weapons and [[asymmetric warfare]] took hold in many countries. The fear reached a crescendo with the 2002 [[Iraq disarmament crisis]] and the [[Niger uranium forgeries|alleged existence]] of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that became the primary justification for the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]]; however, American forces found none in Iraq. They found old stockpiles of chemical munitions including [[sarin]] and [[sulfur mustard|mustard agents]], but all were considered to be unusable because of corrosion or degradation.<ref>[http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,103631,00.html?ESRC=coastgnews.RSS ''Munitions Found in Iraq Meet WMD Criteria''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001050011/http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,103631,00.html?ESRC=coastgnews.RSS |date=1 October 2012 }}, Military.com, report filed by American Forces Press Service, 29 June 2006</ref> Iraq, however, declared a chemical weapons stockpile in 2009 which U.N. personnel had secured after the 1991 Gulf War. The stockpile contained mainly chemical precursors, but some munitions remained usable.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/india-completes-chemical-weapons-disposal-iraq-declares-stockpile/|title=India Completes Chemical Weapons Disposal; Iraq Declares Stockpile {{!}} Analysis {{!}} NTI|website=nti.org|access-date=2017-12-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103021743/http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/india-completes-chemical-weapons-disposal-iraq-declares-stockpile/|archive-date=3 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Because of its prolific use and (worldwide) public profile during this period, the [[American Dialect Society]] voted "weapons of mass destruction" (and its abbreviation, "WMD") the [[Word of the Year|word of the year]] in 2002,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/2002_words_of_the_y/ |title=American Dialect Society |publisher=Americandialect.org |date=13 January 2003 |access-date=5 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615053350/http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/2002_words_of_the_y/ |archive-date=15 June 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> and in 2003 [[Lake Superior State University]] added WMD to its list of terms banished for "Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness" (and "as a card that trumps all forms of aggression").<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www2.lssu.edu/banished-words-list/banished-word-list-archive/#toggle-id-14 |title=Lake Superior State University:: Banished Words List:: 2003 |publisher=Lssu.edu |access-date=5 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820055207/https://www.lssu.edu/banished-words-list/banished-word-list-archive/#toggle-id-14 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In its [[criminal complaint]] against the main suspect of the [[Boston Marathon]] bombing of 15 April 2013, the [[FBI]] refers to a [[pressure-cooker]] improvised [[bomb]] as a "weapon of mass destruction."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/criminal-complaint-united-states-vs-dzhokhar-tsarnaev/412/ |title=Criminal Complaint United States vs Dzhokhar Tsarnaev |access-date=23 April 2013 |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130422211727/http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/criminal-complaint-united-states-vs-dzhokhar-tsarnaev/412/ |archive-date=22 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

There have been calls to classify at least some classes of [[cyberweapon|cyber weapons]] as WMD, in particular those aimed to bring about large-scale (physical) destruction, such as by targeting [[critical infrastructure]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hatch|first=Benjamin B.|date=December 2017|title=Defining a Class of Offensive Destructive Cyber Weapons As Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Examination of the Merits|url=https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/CSDS/assets/trinity_site_paper10.pdf|journal=United States Air Force Center for Unconventional Weapon Studies Trinity Site Papers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602010924/https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/CSDS/assets/trinity_site_paper10.pdf|archive-date=2021-06-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Kumar|first=Davinder|date=March 2013|title=Cyber Weapons – The New Weapons of Mass Destruction|url=https://usiofindia.org/publication/usi-journal/cyber-weapons-the-new-weapons-of-mass-destruction/|url-status=dead|access-date=2021-07-03|website=United Service Institution of India|language=en-US|archive-date=7 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107185109/https://usiofindia.org/publication/usi-journal/cyber-weapons-the-new-weapons-of-mass-destruction/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Pentagon Thinks Cyber Ops Could Be The Next WMDs|url=https://www.govexec.com/defense/2018/12/pentagon-thinks-cyber-ops-could-be-next-wmds/153689/|access-date=2021-07-03|website=Government Executive|date=19 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> However, some scholars have objected to classifying cyber weapons as WMD on the grounds that they "cannot [currently] directly injure or kill human beings as efficiently as guns or bombs" or clearly "meet the legal and historical definitions" of WMD.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carr |first1=Jeffrey |title=The misunderstood acronym: Why cyber weapons aren't WMD |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |date=September 2013 |volume=69 |issue=5 |pages=32–37 |doi=10.1177/0096340213501373 |bibcode=2013BuAtS..69e..32C }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Caves|first1=John|last2=Carus|first2=W. Seth|date=June 2014|title=Future of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Their Nature and Role in 2030|url=https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=755104|journal=Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Occasional Paper 10}}</ref>