ニューヨーク・タイムズさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ニューヨーク・タイムズInstagram)「The U.S. is destroying the last of its once-vast chemical weapons arsenal. The destruction of the stockpile has taken decades, and the Army says the work is just about finished. The Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado destroyed its last weapon in June; the remaining handful at another depot in Kentucky were to be destroyed too. And when they are gone, all of the world’s publicly declared chemical weapons will have been eliminated. The American stockpile, built up over generations, was shocking in its scale: Cluster bombs and land mines filled with nerve agent. Artillery shells that could blanket whole forests with a blistering mustard fog. Tanks full of poison that could be loaded on jets and sprayed on targets below. They were a class of weapons deemed so inhumane that their use was condemned after World War I, but even so, the U.S. and other powers continued to develop and amass them. Destroying them has not been easy: They were built to be fired, not disassembled. The combination of explosives and poison makes them exceptionally dangerous to handle. The Defense Department is now wrapping up decades behind schedule, at a cost close to $42 billion — 2,900% over budget. But it’s done. Tap the link in our bio to read more about how the U.S. destroyed its chemical weapons arsenal. Photos by @kenny_holston and @michaelciaglo」7月9日 2時00分