THE U.S. Army achieved a milestone last week in Anniston, when it destroyed the last of more than 77,000 rockets filled with nerve agents.
There are a few munitions left to be burned at the Anniston Army Depot, but the rockets are now gone.
The destruction of chemical weapons is taking place at eight
sites across the country. International treaties require the
destruction of the Cold War era weapons because they
contained sarin, mustard gas or the deadly nerve agent VX.
By destroying the weapons, the United States can legitimately take the moral high road in international affairs, such as when officials condemned Saddam Hussein, who had used chemical weapons on his own people in northern Iraq after the first Gulf War.
Apparently, the Anniston crew has done a remarkably safe job since 2003, when it started burning sarin-loaded rockets. Nevertheless, the Army should be more forthcoming with documented safety information.
Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, told The Birmingham News last week that the Army has not released reports of alarms, upsets, pollution or other errors at the Anniston facility, though it has done so at other incineration sites.
That's possibly a reflection of different approaches by personnel in charge of the individual sites. Tim Garrett, the Army's project manager in Anniston, says he has met the requirements of the law and doesn't plan to release the documents. Mr. Garrett's approach doesn't inspire confidence, though. If the program has been as safe as he and others say it has been, then releasing the documents will verify that.
The effort to rid the world of chemical weapons hasn't exactly been the beating of swords into plowshares, but it's a move in the right direction.