Comments on: Agent Orange

Agent Orange

homunculus — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 13:46:20 -0800

Vietnam's war against Agent Orange. "The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the scourge of dioxin contamination from a herbicide known as Agent Orange did not."

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 13:49:30 -0800

Here's the text of the lawsuit (PDF).

By: orange swan

orange swan — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 14:04:28 -0800

Here's a June 14, 2003 column from the Globe and Mail's Heather Mallick on this topic. (For those of you familiar with Mallick's work, don't be alarmed. She wrote this during one of her rare episodes of coherency.)

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 16:48:51 -0800

US Soldiers and children were affected also.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 18:14:28 -0800

Thanks for that link, orange swan.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 20:14:02 -0800

You're welcome, homunculus. I find it deeply depressing that this thread should only get a few comments, while a post about two words in the Pledge of Allegiance gets seventy-something comments. Vietnam deserves to get substantial support and aide in dealing with the environmental disaster caused by the Americans who never should have been in their country in the first place - but Americans simply don't care.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 22:59:58 -0800

Orange swan, the problem is not caring, it is a problem with the system, systemic. What we need is a functioning world justice system so that the victims can get financial restitution. However, between the margins of nation states there exists a wild west known as "International Law" where crooks and international corporations run through loopholes the size of elephants. Until global civilization advances to that point, we are still living in an essentially lawless world, at least for those who know how to play the system.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 07:43:31 -0800

One of the ironic things about this is that this is one situation where just throwing money at the problem would result in significant improvement. They wouldn't be trying to get people who've been killing each other for centuries to stop or any other culture clash resolved. The rate of return would be huge compared to most things the US spends money on abroad. Imagine 1% of the money being wasted in Columbia trying to hold back the tide of cocaine redirected to Agent Orange clean up. The world would be a much better place on all three sides.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 22:51:28 -0800

The Vietnam Victims of Agent Orange Association's lawsuit is being brought in part under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which is one of Bush's and Blair's least favorite law.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 22:53:34 -0800

laws.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 05:41:10 -0800

Here's an article sent to me (and written by) a lurker named Gerard Greenfield.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:30:40 -0800

Rehnquist, Cambodia & Abu Ghraib

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 02:03:52 -0800

US lawyers confident of justice for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims