00:00 The use of chemical weapons during warfare was made illegal by the Geneva Protocol way
00:04 back in 1925, shortly following the horrific events of World War I.
00:09 Now nearly 100 years later, the US military has finally disposed of its last drop of its
00:14 reserves of those very weapons, some three decades after US and Russian leadership vowed
00:19 to do just that.
00:20 Just a little over a week ago, the US got rid of its last piece of ordnance, containing
00:24 a sarin gas payload.
00:26 After the supply was incinerated, William A. LaPlante, Undersecretary of Defense for
00:30 Acquisition and Sustainment, had this to say about it, "This is the first time an international
00:35 body has verified destruction of an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction,
00:40 reinforcing the United States' commitment to creating a world free of chemical weapons."
00:44 Despite the horrors of World War I and the countless losses due to battlefield nerve
00:48 agents, both Russia and the US continued to advance not only their stockpiles, but also
00:52 the diversity of their deadly gases.
00:55 Russian being one of the most lethal of all nerve agents, now that the chemical gases
00:59 are disposed of, the facilities in which they were destroyed can now begin their clean up,
01:03 a process which is expected to take years.
01:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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