Soil bacteria and fungi are particularly proficient at producing natural chemical weapons, apparently as part of a subterranean arms race to spew out toxic chemicals to kill rival species.

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But every western government is worried about the natural affinity between non-conventional weapons and non-conventional terrorists.

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No longer satisfied with Western-defined progress, these countries have become emboldened players on the world stage, using commodities such as crude oil, natural gas and mineral deposits as weapons against perceived U.S. hegemony.

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Until very recently they seemed to have great difficulty in resisting the equally natural temptation to shoot off their new weapons, and every day sounded like the Fourth of July, but the F.

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As proven by the OPEC crisis of 1973, oil and other natural resources can, and will be used as weapons by those who would cripple the global economy in an attempt to put a squeeze on the United States.

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"Without testing, countries will not have enough confidence in new weapons to stockpile them, and that will slow down new weapons systems, " says Thomas Cochran of the Natural Resources Council in Washington.

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Japan, China's natural rival for regional influence, has also lobbied unusually hard for the Europeans to keep their weapons ban.

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Iran also began building an actual weapons reactor, a 40 MW heavy water reactor at Arak, that would take natural uranium, and produce plutonium.

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Bush decided to work through the UN Security Council on the issue. despite Russia's open assistance to Iran's nuclear and missile programs and China's growing addiction to Iranian natural gas, it was already apparent that the US was not serious about preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A do or die moment