Originally Posted by Dragonlich

You say it yourself: "Chemical weapons use the toxic properties of chemical substances in order to hurt or kill".

DU does not use the toxic properties ("causes cancer") to kill. It uses brute force to kill, just like any normal round does. Your logic simply doesn't add up; "DU is a toxic substance that is being used in war"... what kind of reason is that??? Gasoline is toxic, and also used in war; is it a chemical weapon? The explosives used in bombs are toxic, and definately used in war; are they chemical weapons? Pretty much everything used in a war is toxic in some form, but they're not all chemical weapons because of that.

The dictionary says:
"Chemical weapon: chemical substances that can be delivered using munitions and dispersal devices to cause death or severe harm to people and animals and plants"

The point isn't that it's toxic, nor that it's used in war. The one thing that makes a chemical weapon is that it's *main effect* is that the chemicals themselves kill, not that there is some sort of nasty unwanted side-effect from those chemicals. Note the "unwanted" here, because I don't think the designers of DU rounds made them specifically to turn into dust and cause cancer when inhaled.

Hence, DU munitions are NOT illegal because they're NOT chemical weapons.

As for the Napalm someone mentioned: it isn't a chemical weapon either. It's an incendiary device; it's goal is to burn things using a mixture of chemicals, not poison/kill them with those chemicals. You may think it's pretty much the same, but there's a HUGE difference. If you disagree, I suggest you take a look at how *real* chemical weapons (such as VX nerve gas) kill their target.