Tragically Agent Orange will go down in history as benign compared to the
catastrophic effects Depleted Uranium is having as it is being unleashed
insanely in the Middle East. Depleted Uranium has a half life of 1 or 4 (I
forget, like it would make any difference) BILLION YEARS. With cancers and
major birth defects passing down generation to generation.....Mary.
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:11:43 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Agent of suffering
Agent of suffering A third generation of Vietnamese are suffering
deformities caused by US chemical warfare and still Washington refuses to
accept responsibility
Posted Feb 11, 2008 08:49 AM PST
Category: SCIENCE/HEALTH
Warning: extremely graphic and disturbing picture at the top of this article.
However, this was the legacy of America's "tax dollars at work" in Viet Nam
in the 60s and 70's. In the nineties and into the year 2008, the legacy of our
"tax dollars at work" will be that of depleted uranium poisoning, not only
hitting people in the Middle East, but our vets and their families as well.
And of course, Washington refuses to acknowledge the terrible damage that this
has caused as well.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Agent of suffering
A third generation of Vietnamese are suffering deformities caused by US
chemical warfare and still Washington refuses to accept responsibility
Tom Fawthrop, Guardian
Three-year-old Xuan Minh, believed to be suffering from the effects of Agent
Orange, looks out from his hospital bed in Ho Chi Min. Photographer: Richard
Vogel/AP
February 10, 2008
Long after the last bullet has been fired in a war, unexploded bombs,
landmines and toxic chemicals continue to maim and kill civilians. This is
particularly true of the Vietnam war. Three decades after US soldiers and
diplomats scrambled aboard the last planes out of Saigon in April 1975, the
toxins they left behind still poison Vietnam. Relations with the United States
have been normalised since the 1990s, but the denial of justice to the victims
of Agent Orange remains a major bone of contention.
Not only are Vietnamese still maimed from treading on unexploded bombs, they
are also victims of this insidious scourge that poisons water and food
supplies, causing various cancers and crippling deformities. Eighty million
litres of Agent Orange were sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, destroying
swathes of irreplaceable rainforest through massive defoliation and leaving a
toxic trail of dioxin contamination in the soil for decades. The legacy of this
chemical warfare can even be inflicted on the unborn, with Agent Orange birth
deformities now being passed on to a third generation.
In the 3,160 villages in the southern part of Vietnam within the Agent Orange
spraying zone, 800,000 people continue to suffer serious health problems and
are in need of constant medical attention. Last month, members of a US
Vietnamese working group reported that it will cost at least $14m to remove
dioxin residues from just one site around the former US airbase in Danang. The
cost of a comprehensive clean-up around three dioxin hotspots and former US
bases is estimated at around $60m. The $3m pledged by US Congress last year is
a pathetically inadequate amount set against the billions spent in waging war
and deploying weapons of mass destruction.
The recent study of one Agent Orange hotspot, the former US airbase in
Danang, found dioxin levels 300 to 400 times higher than internationally
accepted limits. The study confirmed that rainwater had carried dioxin into
city drains and into a neighbouring community that is home to more than 100,000
people.
Dr Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the US,
sampled the soil around former US airbase in Bien Hoa in 2003 and found dioxin
levels that were 180 times above the safe level set by the US environmental
protection agency. The US government was aware of these findings (pdf) back in
2003.
The US government's Veterans Administration officially recognises 13 medical
conditions linked to Agent Orange and provides free medical treatment to US
soldiers who can prove their exposure to the herbicide. But Washington has
adamantly denied all responsibility and evaded any kind of accountability for
the estimated four million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians who suffered far
greater exposure to the dioxin than the US war veterans.
In February 2004, the Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange
(VAVA) filed a class action law suit in a New York court, against Monsanto, Dow
Chemicals and 35 other manufacturers of the herbicides deployed in Vietnam. The
plaintiffs and their lawyers deliberately chose the very same court that had
presided over the only previous lawsuit brought against Agent Orange
manufacturers, by US war veterans.
The original lawsuit was settled in 1984, when seven American chemical
companies paid out $180m to 291,000 US citizens over a period of 12 years. The
out-of-court settlement was linked to a let-out clause for the chemical
companies that refused to accept liability, claiming the science did not prove
that Agent Orange was the cause of a diverse range of cancers, autoimmune
diseases and birth deformities. In 2005, a US court predictably rejected the
Vietnamese claim for massive compensation in respect of war crimes and crimes
against humanity inflicted on the civilian population. It is still being
appealed in the US courts.
Why has Washington been so doggedly determined to deny any compensation to
Vietnamese victims, even refusing to come up with humanitarian aid? A clue can
be found in the intervention of the White House counsel in the Vietnamese
lawsuit against the chemical companies. The US government intervened to argue
that if the court permitted the case to prosper, it would undermine national
security and limit presidential options in a time of war.
In the New York Court Seth Waxman, defence counsel for the chemical
companies, argued there was a lack of legal precedent for punishing those who
used poisons during warfare, and said US battlefield decisions could be harmed.
"This does affect our ongoing diplomacy," he said, citing the use of depleted
uranium shells by US forces in Iraq.
To accept US responsibility for Agent Orange could expose Washington to
claims relating to the use of napalm, phosphorous bombs and various My Lai-type
massacres.
Tragically, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese victims are denied
compensation because the US government and its military want no limits placed
on their arsenal of weapons, and few restrictions on their methods of
interrogation and torture. They are also deeply anxious to guarantee that
international justice is confined to putting developing nations and other weak
regimes in the dock - Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Serbia. The US government, in
refusing to sign up to the international criminal court, has ensured that they
are beyond the reach of international law.
:: Article nr. 41030 sent on 11-feb-2008 05:05 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=41030
Link: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_fawthrop/2008/02/agent_of_suffering.html
:: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the
author and do not necessarily reflect those of Uruknet .
" The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy
the Americans freedom, and before I leave office, I must inform the citizen of
this plight." _ John F. Kennedy- Columbia University, Nov. 12, 1963
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in governent."
- Thomas Jefferson
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Let the people do what they want, you get Woodstock. Let the government do what
it wants, you get WACO!....Mary.
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