The Weapons of Mass Destruction - Paper Example

Introduction

The Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) pose a serious threat to the health department in the United States. The instance of a strike by the terrorists or other players represents a challenge to the critical department on the provision of health. Planning for a WMD incident does not provide sufficiently provide for the enhancement of the health components.

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The weapons of mass destruction have the capacity of devastating the sectors within a country. The health component diversely involves aspects such as air-poisoning, chemical weapons, and the spread of bugs on a large scale (Blackwell, 2017). The United States government has funded various initiatives aimed at protecting the population against such aspects in case of external aggression. However, there is a need to dedicate more effort to revitalize the health component of the nation's security in a situation where attacks can emanate from within the country.

On the one hand, the health sector forms a potential target for the terrorists or enemy states. Thus, the health department requires significant protection. It is evident that health care facilities do not get the necessary protection. The Homeland security does not include the healthcare facilities as some of the critical centers for that require special protection.

On the other hand, there are diverse aspects that spell out the preparedness of the health component in the instance of a WMD attack (Blackwell, 2017). The WMD have varying impacts on the users. They emit dangerous rays such as the X-rays which can harm the living organisms. The healthcare providers need to diversify their approaches towards the provision of advanced health services. There is little health preparation among the stakeholders at the moment since the healthcare facilities cannot cater to the public in case of a WMD attack. Additionally, it does not adequately address the full extent of the diversity of the challenges emerging out of the WMD.

Funding

The current government policies aimed at revamping the nation's health sectors (Watson, Watson & Kirk Sell, 2017). There is a new clamor for research and improved cooperation between the government and the different stakeholders in the medical department. Nonetheless, the WMD preparedness requires unique capacities to overcome the unforeseen events such as the WMD attack.

The health department shall not receive enough funds for protection in case of a WMD attack (Watson, Watson & Kirk Sell, 2017). The government has diverse expenditure and economic aspects to address. On the one hand, it has to deal with immigrants. The protection of the Southern border poses an immediate concern for the government. Thus, the government priorities indicate that it shall spend funds elsewhere rather than funding the health department to prepare in case of a WMD attack.

At the same time, the government has adopted different measures to combat armament across the world. The government aims at preventing the rivals from accessing arms rather than protecting different government departments against attacks. An instance such as the Iranian case suffices. The federal government has slapped the Iranian government with sanctions due to its focus on acquiring WMD. Such an approach aims at limiting the process of armament on a global scale. Thus, different nations cannot attain the WMD, and therefore it is inappropriate to use additional funds to protect a threat that is not imminent to the American society.

There has been an overall decrease of a large-scale terrorist attack on the US soil. The improved technology used by the army and security agencies indicate that it is unlikely that the terrorists of enemies to succeed in hitting targets within the United States. The Homeland security department monitors aspects such as Facebook, social media interaction, and the browsing history to reveal the sinister motives among the suspected terrorists. In such cases, the authorities can foretell of an attack even before it occurs which indicates that it is unnecessary to guard the sites against the WMD attacks perpetually.

References

Blackwell, J. L. (2017). CBRN Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Relevance of the United

States Armys Chemical Corps in the Support of Homeland Security and Defense Against State and Non-State Actors. US Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth United States.

Watson, C., Watson, M., & Kirk Sell, T. (2017). Federal funding for health security in FY2018. Health security, 15(4), 351-372.