Chemical weapons begone

The United States announced on July 9, 2023, that it had destroyed its last stockpile of chemical weapons, making it the last of eight countries that had declared reserves under the Chemical Weapons Convention to destroy them.

The United States once had 30,000 tons of chemical agents.

Russia had at least 40,000 tons.

Today, neither country possesses any chemical weapons.

A few rogue states still possess a very small number of chemical weapons, but those numbers are also dwindling.

Syria deployed chlorine and nerve agents in its civil war with horrible effects, and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un used a nerve agent to kill his half-brother. Still, chemical weapons as weapons of mass destruction no longer exist on planet Earth.

Good news is so often ignored. People would rather complain than compliment. Lament rather than exalt. They choose pessimism over optimism at seemingly every turn.

I like to highlight moments of enormous positivity whenever possible. Let’s rejoice in nations taking a massive step toward a better world.