U.S. Acceptance of Our Use of Chemical Weapons

Our Chemical Weapons Legacy

The country served doesn't seem to mind 'our' use of chemical weapons or that which brings further suffering decades later.

It ignored, with denial, the brothers who suffered from Agent Orange and the rest of the defoliants used, many now gone, and it's responsibility to those in country still living in the devastating results from for decades and still not compensating the generations of victims, nothing new on either count as it also ignores as much as possible, even denying any problem, decades as to not only Agent Orange but PTS and more, as to Vietnam, recent history has Gulf War Syndrome and even issues from Afghanistan and Iraq, they showed in recent history they don't even want to pay for wars let alone the long term results from as to their responsibility and the decades long under funded Veterans' Administration, especially when sending those who serve into invasion and occupation theaters, while those who obstruct full funding, rubber stamping war costs with no bid private contracts, still seek to privatize for profit the agency!!

Sep 13, 2013 - Over a year ago, the United States and Vietnam agreed to join in a program that would attempt to reduce the legacy in Vietnam of the days in which the United States used chemical weapons on civilian populations, including children -- chemical weapons, I would add, that are still wounding children almost 45 years later.

The Danang Airbase is one of three "dioxin hotspots" -- alongside Bien Hoa and Phu Cat airbases -- where concentrations of extremely toxic contaminants from Agent Orange are nearly 400 times the globally accepted maximum standard. Until five years ago, when the area was finally sealed off, Danang residents such as Binh fished, bathed and harvested lotus plants from the Sen Lake -- and ate local fish with more than three times the safe level of dioxin. As a result, victims groups say, rates of cancer, birth deformities and other dioxin-related diseases are higher than the national average in the area -- and the health threat lingers. "In hotspots like Danang Airbase we are still finding very young people who are affected by (Agent Orange related) diseases," said Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA). "The government doesn't have the capacity to move them out of contaminated areas," the 71-year-old retired general told AFP. Hanoi says up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, and that one million suffer grave health repercussions today, including at least 150,000 children born with birth defects.

Things seem to be progressing, if one of the Americans most active in the program is to be believed. read more>>>

The only branch of government, federal and state, that has been consistently fighting for the veterans' community, not just these present day and two recent war theaters but all veterans and the long ignored issues, is this Executive branch and it's Cabinet when they can and with their budgets, as the now Veterans' Administration has been pro-active, still heavily under funded, since Gen Shinseki was appointed!!