Biological, radiological, and nuclear agents all present an extreme hazard to homeland security in the United States.? E

The response must be 200 words and use at least 2 scholarly citation(s) in APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include texts, articles, presentations, the Bible, blogs, videos, etc.

Textbook:

Johnson, T. A. (2015). Cybersecurity: Protecting critical infrastructures from cyber attack and cyber warfare.Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN: 9781482239225.

Pichtel, J. (2016). Terrorism and WMDs (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN: 9781498738989.

***MEGAN**

Biological, radiological, and nuclear agents all present an extreme hazard to homeland security in the United States.  Each of these types of agents present an extreme risk to the military personnel and general civilians in the United States.  Biological agents are those that come from bacteria and are crafted into weapons to be used against the intended target.  Of all the potential biological agents that could be used in an attack, anthrax poses a great danger to the civilians in this society.  Anthrax is a white powder that is able to survive and thrive no matter what temperature or condition is can be found in (Pichtel, 2016).  Homeland security needs to be concerned with these types of weapons and attacks because many countries have access to the resources and the ability to create these weapons.  At the same time, many countries rely on these weapons to instill fear, death, illness or economic damage to another country (Homeland Security, n.d.).  That being said, countries that are the victim of these attacks need to have plans in place to prevent any exasperated effects of these attacks.

            Arguably, nuclear and radiological weapons can be seen as the biggest threat to the United States and the global economy as a whole.  Although they are the most dangerous weapons, they are more easily detected than biological weapons (Pichtel, 2016).  Therefore, homeland security for each respective country should promote their intelligence departments to monitor for a country that is taking in a lot of materials that could be crafted into one of these weapons.  Similar in nature, these weapons do differ as radiological weapons are intended to be radioactive, but nuclear weapons release a lesser amount of radiation, that simply results from the interaction of the chemicals (Pichtel, 2016).  One step that the United States took to prevent and control these weapons took place in 2017 when the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction was established (Homeland Security, n.d.).  Ultimately, the more energy and time that Homeland Security puts into these weapons, the less chance they will have at being created because the plans could be intercepted and stopped.  If one of these bombs were to go off, the amount of damage that would be done to the target and the entire global community would be devastating and hard to recover from. 

            When discussing the impact of a weapon that is biological, nuclear or radiological in nature, the Holy Bible should be looked to as a guide to help the victims of these attacks.  One passage in particular reads, “look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (King James Bible, 1769/2021, Philippians 2:4).  By putting the needs of others first, we can help prevent weapons of mass destruction, but if they do occur, we are better able to heal the wounds of those that were affected. 

            Overall, biological, nuclear, and radiological agents can pose some of the biggest threats to society and mankind as we know it.  If a terrorist group successfully pulls off one of these attacks or gains one of these weapons, other countries could be in serious threat.  At the same time, homeland security could put forth an effort designed to stop these weapons from being constructed, lessening the threat of another country.