Killing Enemy Research Articles

From active duty to activism: how moral injury and combat trauma drive political activism and societal reintegration among Israeli veterans.

This article deals with combat experiences and their consequences and could be potentially disturbing. Moral injury (MI) is a severe form of combat trauma that shatters soldiers' moral bearings as the result of killing in war. Among the myriad ways that moral injury affects veterans' reintegration into civilian life, its impact on political and societal reintegration remains largely unstudied but crucial for personal, community, and national health. 13 in-depth interviews examine combat soldiers' exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) that include killing enemy combatants, harming civilians, and betrayal by commanders, the military system, and society. Interviewees also described their political activities (e.g., voting, fundraising, advocacy, protest) and social activism (e.g., volunteering, teaching, charitable work). Interviewees also completed the Moral Injury Symptom Scale. Two distinct narratives process PMIEs. In a humanitarian narrative, soldiers hold themselves or their in-group morally responsible for perpetrating, witnessing, or failing to prevent a morally transgressive act such as killing or injuring civilians or placing others at unnecessary risk. In contrast, a national security perspective blames an out-group for leaving soldiers with no choice but to act in ways that trigger moral distress. Associated with shame and guilt, the humanitarian perspective triggered amends-making and social activism after discharge. In contrast, a national security perspective associated with anger and frustration fostered protest and intense political activism. Despite its harmful health effects, moral trauma and injury can drive intense political and social activism, depending upon the narrative veterans adopt to interpret PMIEs. Aside from moral injury's personal, familial, and social effects, moral injury drives veterans' return to the political arena of civil society. As such, veterans play a central role in politics and dramatically affect post-war policy in democratic nations following conflict.

Newspaper Content Analysis of 2012-2015 Ombaste Ethnic Conflict in Nasarawa State: A Framing Theory Perspective

This study examined the newspaper coverage of the Ombatse crisis that hit Nasarawa State from 2012-2015. The Ombatse was a movement that wanted to resurrect the Eggon culture in a kind of renaissance and ensure a culture of high morality and chastity; laudable as these objectives were, the group suddenly turned dreadful, assuming a more militant posture; attacking and killing enemies real or perceived including security forces in their hundred. The study employed content analysis, which is a quantitative method of data generation. It applied four predetermined frames: actor frame, action frame, reaction frame, and consequence frame. 2112 dailies were censured for the period of four years. Study applied purposive sampling technique in the selection of the Daily Trust and Leadership newspapers where 180 copies of the papers were examined. The found that reaction frame was the predominant slant of the Nigerian newspapers with 61.1% of the news stories as reactions to the Ombatse activities. By implication, the findings revealed vacuity of the Nigerian media in handling a core national issue to which the media itself is a stakeholder. The study recommended that the media must be active participant in addressing, shaping public understanding of social upheaval- because the role of the media during conflict cannot be underestimated. The media should be able to analyse consequences, the possibility of collateral damage on the parties involved, the shadow parties and the by-standers. Nigerian journalists should also be trained and retrained on guide to sensitive-conflict reporting.

The Impact of Just and Unjust War Events on Mental Health Need and Utilization within U.S. Service Members

Background: Soldiers are resilient to just war events, such as killing enemy combatants and life-threatening experiences, but these same soldiers appear to struggle with unjust war events, such as killing a noncombatant or being unable to help civilian women and children in need. This study is the first to examine how just and unjust war experiences are associated with clinical health service outcomes. Methods: Two samples of soldiers in different stages of readjustment from deployment were drawn from a longitudinal, survey-based study of a US Army brigade. Measures included items related to combat events, mental health utilization, perceived mental health need, PTSD, depression, and functional impairment. Results: After controlling for other kinds of combat events, just war events (i.e., life-threatening events and killing enemy combatants) predicted outcomes in soldiers who are less than three months post-deployment, but only predicted 2 of 26 outcomes in soldiers one year post deployment. In contrast, unjust war events were found to be robust predictors of short-term and long-term outcomes related to mental health need and utilization, even after controlling for exposure to other combat events. Conclusions: The results extend previous longitudinal research that suggests that exposure to unjust war events carry a heavier long-term mental health burden than other types of events. Additionally, Soldiers exposed to unjust war events had an unmet need for care one year post deployment that was not directly tied to PTSD or depression. The results question the emphasis on life-threat within mental health pathogenesis models.

The Suffering Hero in Leonid Andreyev’s Novel The Yoke of War: From the Personal to the Universal

This article analyses Leonid Andreyev´s novel The Yoke of War. The authors of the study point out the gradual transition from “objective” diary records to highly subjective records that show an ambivalent attitude towards the war as a cause for damaging changes on the home front. The main character, whose thoughts are rational at the beginning, experiences a lot of personal and social catastrophes generated directly or indirectly by the war. Gradually, he comes to the conclusion that neither he as an individual (as a “cell”) nor other people of his type have any impact on the course of history; he sees that the war is killing both enemies and “our people”. Contradictory changes in the character’s inner world show his doubts about patriotism and the righteousness of the “people”, while his belief that war only benefits a small group of greedy entrepreneurs grows. Feeling that the war cannot have a happy ending, the main character is no longer able to act rationally. He accepts all losses – personal and social – and comes to a purely emotional feeling about the universal unfairness of war. The only remaining possibility is to help wounded soldiers. Andreyev depicts a broad range of issues that thematically concern the experience and destiny of an individual, his inner transformation, the fate of his family members, and the destiny of both real and abstract society. The novel touches upon certain philosophical issues concerning such notions as patriotism, Russia’s fate, the sense of belonging to the masses, and being an individual. In this way, the novel can be regarded as a philosophical and panhuman view of World War I. Following the traditions of classical Russian literature to a considerable extent, Andreyev is concerned with questions based not on narrow class or national foundations but on panhuman ones.

From Scorching Desert to Tropical Paradise: New Form of Video Game Orientalism in Far Cry 3

This paper provides an analysis of different form of orientalism found in the third title of the popular Far Cry game series. The open world system offered by Far Cry 3 brings a new nuance in the discourse of orientalism in video games, especially within the context of military shooter game. It provides both opportunities and challenges for developers to build ‘world’ as real as possible for players to explore. This construction process often reflects the orientalism practices shown by game developers in describing Eastern society and culture. Through a variety of activities such as hunting, exploring, sailing, and killing enemy forces, the player acts as a 'western mediator' who intepret the simulated Eastern world as a strange and mysterious territory.

Distinguishing the Effects of Life Threat, Killing Enemy Combatants, and Unjust War Events in U.S. Service Members.

Although previous studies have identified behavioral health risks associated with combat exposure, it is unclear which types of combat events are associated with these risks, particularly regarding contrasts among the risks associated with life-threatening experiences, killing combatants, and exposure to unjust war events, such as killing a noncombatant or being unable to help civilian women and children. In the present study, we examined surveys from 402 soldiers following deployment (i.e., baseline) and again 13 months later (i.e., Year 1). Regression analyses were conducted across a range of behavioral health (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide ideation, anxiety, somatic, insomnia, aggression) and benefit-finding measures, each controlling for two combat event categories while assessing the predictive utility of a third. The results suggested that life-threatening events were associated with poor behavioral health at baseline, relative risk (RR) = 10.00, but not at Year 1, RR = 2.67. At both baseline and Year 1, killing enemy combatants was not associated with behavioral health, RRs = 1.67-3.33, but was positively associated with benefit-finding, RRs = 26.67-40.00. Exposure to unjust war events was associated with a transdiagnostic pattern of behavioral health symptoms at baseline, RR = 40.00, and Year 1, RR = 23.33. Overall, the results suggest unjust war event exposure is particularly injurious, above and beyond exposure to other combat-related events. Future research can build on these findings to develop clearer descriptions of the combat events that might place service members at risk for moral injury and inform the development of assessment and treatment options.

Moral injury from war and other severe trauma.

Moral injury (MI) is a relatively new syndrome among military personnel with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While MI has received considerable attention in the psychological sciences, the syndrome has received relatively little notice within psychiatry. MI has been defined as the negative emotions that emerge from transgressing moral boundaries by military personnel during combat such as killing enemy combatants or innocent civilians, failing to protect innocents or fellow combatants, or observing others transgress moral boundaries. MI may also be frequent among civilians and health professionals, although, as in military personnel, is often unrecognized.

If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence by Ronald J. Sider

Reviewed by: If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence by Ronald J. Sider Ma. Marilou S. Ibita ronald j. sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019). Pp. xvi + 240. Paper $24.99. Sider's work has a foreword by Stanley Hauerwas and inviting blurbs from wellknown personalities. It aims "to show in detail" (p. 2) what the NT teaches about pacifism. His central question is, "Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice? When Jesus commanded his disciples to love their enemies, did he mean that they should never kill them?" (p. 2). The titles of the fourteen chapters of the book give a good description of the contents: "Jesus's Gospel"; "Jesus's Actions"; "Jesus's Teaching in the Sermon on the Mount"; "Other Teachings of Jesus"; "Peace in the Rest of the New Testament"; "But What About …?"; "Foundational Theological Issues"; "Problems with Pacifism"; "Problems with Just War Thinking"; "Jesus and Killing in the Old Testament"; "What If Most (or All) Christians Became Pacifists?"; "Nonviolence and Atonement"; "Christians and Killing in Church History"; and "If Jesus Is Lord." After locating Jesus's gospel in the context of Jewish messianic expectations and describing Jesus's actions that shun violence, S. examines the six antitheses in Matt 5:17-48, finding support from biblical scholars on how these texts support nonviolence. In discussing other teachings of Jesus that reject violence, S. calls attention to NT texts that affirm peace among peoples and on the cosmic level. [End Page 721] In the second half of the book, S. engages biblical texts that seem to resist pacifism, such as passages about the sword, soldiers and military leaders, military symbolism, the cleansing of the temple, wars, capital punishment, dealing with authority, texts that speak of God killing enemies, and the violent texts in Revelation. S. then turns to a theological discussion of biblical pacifism: Jesus's identity and his resurrection, the already/not-yet aspect of the kingdom, the role of the church, and the question of living out biblical non-violence. S. examines how biblical pacifists engage in daring acts of nonviolence to protect their neighbors and casts doubt on the just war theory and its usefulness. In exploring the OT, S. treats texts about killing in relation to the promised land and a range of issues such as adultery, drunkenness, and so on. In the context of some of the psalms (68:22-23; 137:8-9), S. discusses Jesus's relationship with OT texts. One cannot avoid the fact that there are people or groups that inflict violence on others. S. expects that a lot of Christians will suffer and die by being pacifists but that more will embrace Christ. Sider explains the challenges presented by the traditional understanding of atonement, "sins" and "sin," God's wrath, and the multiple, complementary metaphors of the atonement. Turning to church history, S. discusses killing from pre-Constantinian Christianity to the present, highlighting prominent individual pacifists in the last two centuries and explaining the different kinds of pacifism from the 1920s onward. The final chapter, "If Jesus Is Lord," asks, "What did Jesus tell us about killing our enemies?" Here, S. gathers insights from the NT passages that he earlier explored to conclude that Jesus called his followers to love and not to kill their enemies. Sider worked through the passages that underline and challenge biblical pacifism. Nonetheless, I wish that his work included recent interpretations that use empire studies, ritual studies, and trauma hermeneutics. These hermeneutical lenses would have helped to provide a richer understanding, first, of the multiple roles of the examined biblical passages, especially the violent/harsh texts, in other aspects of the life situation of the originating communities of Jews (e.g., Psalm 137), and, second, of the early Jesus followers' changing response to authority as reflected in the NT materials. This response depends on when the materials were written, from accepting authority in Paul, to critical engagement in the Synoptics, and finally to resistance in Revelation. Sensitivity to and critical awareness of potential...

War, Snipers, and Rage from <em>Enemy at the Gates</em> to <em>American Sniper</em>

Shooting people, murder and war are inherently violent activities to which the concept of rage might seem inextricably linked, but deeper examination reveals levels of complexity. Despite what we often perceive, soldiers are actually trained to operate in a calm and dispassionate manner. This is especially the case for military snipers, who perform the role of hiding in the battlefield, waiting for the chance to take single aimed shots to kill an unsuspecting enemy. My study examines the concept of rage and compares the level of rage in the film American Sniper (2014), set in the Iraq war with that of Enemy at the Gates (2001), set during the siege of Stalingrad in the Second World War. I argue that a form of controlled rage can be seen in the world of the sniper, and I set this against the acceptance of violence in an America where mass shootings appear to be an ever-growing expression of individual rage.

Dziecięca ikonografia księżniczek Okresu Amarneńskiego

This article explains the characteristic style of princesses representations in Amarna Period art. This high essential aspect (in literally way) shows full of love relations between family members from Akhetaten. Children iconography in ancient Egypt remained rather persistent, however, pictures showing Meritaten, Maketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten, Neferneferure and Setepenre stand alone not only by details, but also by scenes in which princesses have been presented. The royal daughters are often shown naked or in robes looking like delicate tied with sash in waist or under bust dress belonging to their mother Nefertiti. Though girls – regardless of age – have always been portrayed with the sidelock of youth. The reliefs representing Amarna princesses and their parents deviate significantly from fixed and formal style of iconography which is characteristic for periods before and after Akhenaten’s reigns. The girls have been shown not only in family scenes enjoying a good time with their parents, but also accompanying the royal couple in scenes of tribute from Nubia and Syria, in the scenes of killing enemies of Egypt and in the heart-touching mourning scenes. The representations of the six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, besides being the symbol of the spouses’ fertility, also performed an important religious function – the girls together with their parents and the god Aten created the divine Ennead just like the model of the nine gods from Heliopolis. The reliefs showing Amarna family seem to present real feelings and emotions of the royal couple and their children, although it could have a propagandist character.

The persuasive aims of Metal Gear Solid: A discourse theoretical approach to the study of argumentation in video games

The paper is aimed at proving the hypothesis that multimodal construction in video games can follow specific discursive aims in the process of persuading game players. In order to prove this, we have performed a multifaceted analysis which elaborated the ways in which different modalities in a representative video game combine so as to convince the player to act, play, and perhaps think accordingly. The multimodal approach employed in the paper combines the notion of discourse aims and the rhetorical and argumentative structure of Metal Gear Solid (Kojima, 1998), and analyses different narrative strategies and verbal cues, as well as the overall interface, control, and gameplay. The results suggest that verbal and textual cues combine with audio-visual elements and highly specific gameplay strategies in order to refrain the player from killing enemies. This might indicate that video games are likely to possess a great persuasive power, as they are both multimodal and highly interactive.

Making healthier or killing enemies? Bacterial volatile-elicited plant immunity plays major role upon protection of Arabidopsis than the direct pathogen inhibition

ABSTRACTBacterial volatiles protect plants either by directly inhibiting a pathogenic fungus or by improving the defense capabilities of plants. The effect of bacterial volatiles on fungal growth was dose-dependent. A low dosage did not have a noticeable effect on Botrytis cinerea growth and development, but was sufficient to elicit induced resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Bacterial volatiles displayed negative effects on biofilm formation on a polystyrene surface and in in planta leaf colonization of B. cinerea. However, bacterial volatile-mediated induced resistance was the major mechanism mediating protection of plants from B. cinerea. It was responsible for more than 90% of plant protection in comparison with direct fungal inhibition. Our results broaden our knowledge of the role of bacterial volatiles in plant protection.

Żołnierz i służba wojskowa w świetle kościelnych źródeł normatywnych z IV i V wieku

At the beginning of the fourth century the legal situation of Christians in the Roman Empire changed dramatically. Thanks to the Emperor Constantine they were no longer persecuted, and their faith became religio licita. From that point onwards the views of Christians on the state began to evolve. It was a long-term process, and happened at a varied pace. One of the aspects of this transformation was the change of Christian attitude to military service. It needs to be said that, from this perspective, the Church legislative sources have not been examined in a great detail. This article aims to take a closer look at several of the sources that include Church regulations relating to military service of the fourth and fifth cen­turies. These include, i.a., Canons of Hippolytus; Letters of St. Basil; Apostolic Constitutions and Canons of the Apostles. In addition, the article discusses the rel­evant contents of synodal and council canons from said period. These regulations show the adaptation of Church legislature to the new circumstances, in which the Roman state stopped being the persecutor and became the protector of Christianity. The analysis of numerous documents confirms that Christians were present in the Roman army already in the third century. Because of the spilling of blood and the pagan rites performed in the army, the Church hierarchs strongly resisted the idea of allowing Christians to serve in the military. Church regulations from the third century strictly forbade enlisting in the army, or continuing military service for those who were newly accepted into the community, for the reasons mentioned above. From other documents, however, we learn that the number of Christians in the army was nonetheless increasing. Many were able to reconcile military service with their conscience. At the beginning of the fourth century emperor Constantine granted Christians religious freedom. He allowed Christian soldiers to abstain from invoking pagan gods while swearing military oath (sacramentum), and to participate in Sunday services. The empire was slowly becoming a Christian state. It is for this reason that in the Church regulations from the fourth and fifth century we find accep­tance for the presence of Christians in the army. Even though killing of an enemy required undertaking penance, it was no longer a reason for excommunication with no possibility of returning to the Christian communion. The Church expected Christian soldiers to be satisfied with their wages alone, and to avoid harming oth­ers through stealing, forced lodging or taking food. The Church in the East no lon­ger considered it wrong to accept gifts for the upkeep of clergy and other faithful from the soldiers who behaved in a correct manner. From the mid-fourth century performing religious services started being treated as separate from performing a layperson’s duties. For this reason the bishops, in both parts of the empire, de­cided that clergy are barred from military service. In the West, those of the faithful who enlisted with the army after being baptised could no longer be consecrated in the future. In the East, the approach was less rigorous, as the case of Nectarius, the Archbishop of Constantinople, shows. By the end of the fourth century, the West adopted very strict rules of public penance for soldiers – the Popes reminded in their letters to the bishops in Spain and Gaul that after performing the public pen­ance, the soldiers were forbidden to return to the army. We should not forget that the change in the attitude of the Church to military service was also affected by the political-military situation of the Empire. During the fourth and fifth centuries its borderlands were persistently harassed by barbar­ian raids, and the Persian border was threatened. Let us also remember that the army was not popular in the Roman society during this period. For these reasons, the shifting position of the Church had to be positively seen by the Empire’s ruling elites. The situation became dramatic at the beginning of the fifth century, when Rome was sacked by barbarians. Developing events caused the clergy to deepen their reflections on the necessity of waging war and killing enemies. Among such clergymen was St. Augustine, in whose writings we may find a justification of the so-called just war. Meanwhile, in the East, the view that wars can be won only with God’s help began to dominate.

The neural correlates of justified and unjustified killing: an fMRI study.

Despite moral prohibitions on hurting other humans, some social contexts allow for harmful actions such as killing of others. One example is warfare, where killing enemy soldiers is seen as morally justified. Yet, the neural underpinnings distinguishing between justified and unjustified killing are largely unknown. To improve understanding of the neural processes involved in justified and unjustified killing, participants had to imagine being the perpetrator whilst watching 'first-person perspective' animated videos where they shot enemy soldiers ('justified violence') and innocent civilians ('unjustified violence'). When participants imagined themselves shooting civilians compared with soldiers, greater activation was found in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Regression analysis revealed that the more guilt participants felt about shooting civilians, the greater the response in the lateral OFC. Effective connectivity analyses further revealed an increased coupling between lateral OFC and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) when shooting civilians. The results show that the neural mechanisms typically implicated with harming others, such as the OFC, become less active when the violence against a particular group is seen as justified. This study therefore provides unique insight into how normal individuals can become aggressors in specific situations.

GAME EDUKASI DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN UNITY 3D UNTUK MENUNJANG PROSES PEMBELAJARAN

One form of development of interactive learning media is learning media using games. Because games are quite popular among teenagers, by building learning media using games, it is hoped that it can help increase learning motivation and attract interest in learning with a fun learning process. This educational game is called Hinterweltlern with the RPG (Role Playing Game) genre, where a story is presented based on the basic competency material at each level. Students will explore dungeons, and can access materials by completing objectives/missions, killing enemies, or reaching the checkpoint area. Each level session has a Boss that must be defeated by answering questions correctly about the material that has been given to advance to the next level. The research method used in this study is the Research and Development (P&P) method. This educational game is a hybrid game with the genres of Role Playing Game, Fighting, Fantasy, and Education using Unity 3D software, which replaces the Conventional Learning Activity method with a more interactive and interesting method, namely a Windows Platform educational game. The result of making this Educational Game of Appearance is in the form of a 3-dimensional Game, the player where the player will act as a certain character who runs the plot according to the storyboard that has been made. Players will be asked to explore dungeons/chapters to run quests or access materials. Keyword s : Instructional Media; Games; RPGs; Unity 3D;

Autonomous Weapons Systems: Taking the Human Out of International Humanitarian Law

Once confined to science fiction, killer robots will soon be a reality. Both the USA and the UK are currently developing weapons systems that could be capable of autonomously targeting and killing enemy combatants. These capabilities are only 25 years away. According to Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention and customary international law, weapons systems must be capable of operating within then principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). This paper will demonstrate that without significant restrictions on the use of Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) or the creation of a new legal framework, the use AWS is problematic. First, there are legitimate concerns that AWS are, by their nature, incapable of adhering to IHL principles. Second, there is a more fundamental problem: the principles of IHL are actually insufficient to address the unique concerns regarding AWS. Finally, the solutions proposed by proponents of AWS do not sufficiently address these concerns. A legal solution beyond the general principles of IHL must be developed.

The Capture-Kill Debate: Lost Legislative History or Revisionist History?

In a recent essay, Ryan Goodman offers a vigorous defense of the duty to capture under the law of war and concludes that attacking soldiers have a duty to use the least-restrictive means of accomplishing their objective. In particular, Goodman contends in his new intervention that the scholarly debate has relied on an impoverished reading of the legislative history of the key international protocols drafted in 1973 and 1974. Having unearthed a wealth of documents regarding those negotiations, he argues that: (i) the law of war already severely restricts the use of force in various contexts by virtue of specific prohibitions on methods of warfare; (ii) the law of war already prohibits killing enemy combatants who are rendered hors de combat; and (iii) the drafters of the Additional Protocols supported a “least-restrictive-means” interpretation of the concept of necessity, meaning that killing is only lawful when soldiers have no other way of neutralizing the enemy (e.g. capture is not feasible). For reasons that I articulate in the present commentary, I believe that none of these arguments provides definitive support for a duty to capture under the laws of war. First, with regard to Goodman's first two arguments, one cannot move from a list of specific jus in bello prohibitions to a generalized principle regarding the nature of military necessity that then swallows and expands the specific rules. Second, the arguments ignore the Lieber Code's definition of military necessity as "all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies" and "those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of the war, and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war." Although the law of war has advanced considerably since Lieber, its general structure remains relatively unchanged. Third, the drafters of the Additional Protocol did not codify the least-restrictive means test; its provision on unnecessary suffering cannot be read to include it since unnecessary suffering and unnecessary killing are conceptually distinct.

Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War and Violence

Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War and Violence

Killing versus witnessing in combat trauma and reports of PTSD symptoms and domestic violence

Active participation in combat trauma increased reports of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms over passive witnessing of trauma. Using archival data from 376 U.S. soldiers who took part in the family interview component of the 1988 National Vietnam Veteran Readjustment Study (NVVRS), findings are that even after statistically accounting for witnessing combat trauma, U.S. soldiers who likely killed enemy soldiers in combat reported elevated levels of PTSD symptoms. Both inference and direct self-reports were used to measure killing in combat, and both measures accounted equally well for variance in PTSD symptoms. The likelihood of a soldier killing enemy combatants was also weakly related to his spouse's report of physical domestic violence in the past year. Diagnosing the mental health symptoms of combat soldiers should specifically assess whether they actively participated in wounding or killing the enemy.

Biological incidents: Revisiting past perspectives toward a 21st century problem

Beginning in the 14th century, the use of biological agents as weapons created an effective methodology of killing enemy combatants and instilling fear in the populace of a community and nation. Although the deployment of these agents in various forms is in opposition to the agreements set within the rules of several weapons treaties, the use and threat of their development as a terrorist instrument has impacted societies in post-September 11th documented accounts. This article provides a chronological indication of the use of natural and synthetic biological agents as an intimidation factor and demonstrates the extent of how they have been consciously used in contemporary confrontations and how law enforcement, healthcare providers, and health organizations are engaged in the response of these biological weapons.