Back US destroys last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile: Joe Biden

The White House on Friday announced that the last of the United States' declared chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed at a sprawling military installation in eastern Kentucky, a milestone that closes a chapter of warfare dating back to World War I. In Kentucky, the workers at Blue Grass Army Depot destroyed rockets filled with the GB nerve agent, completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons, according to Associated Press reports. 

President Joe Biden, in an official statement, said that the United States worked tirelessly to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile over the last 30 years. Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile — bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons," Biden said. The weapons' destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month, AP reported. 

The United States has successfully completed destruction of our chemical weapons stockpile, marking a major step forward under the Chemical Weapons Convention," Antony Blinken tweeted. The US had a September 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the International Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. 

The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with GB nerve agent — a deadly toxin also known as sarin — that have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.Now, the US is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven't joined the agreement, according to the military experts. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “Chemical weapons are responsible for some of the most horrific episodes of human loss. Though the use of these deadly agents will always be a stain on history, today our nation has finally fulfilled our promise to rid our arsenal of this evil."