Chemical War Crimes

You may recall that one of the most heinous crimes of which Saddam Hussein is accused (no doubt correctly) was his use of chemical weapons in 1988 on a Kurdish town, killing several thousand civilians. According to Bush, this makes Saddam a "murderous tyrant," deserving of being overthrown. But Saddam was far from the first in the modern era to use chemical weapons on civilians. The Americans -- no real surprise -- are the major killers by this method.

On Monday, we will "celebrate" the 43rd anniversary of the first dioxin bombings by the USA in Vietnam. Known as Agent Orange, 19 million gallons of "defoliant" were sprayed all across South Vietnam. Contaminated with dioxin, the "defoliant" became a chemical weapon of terrifying brutality. The war has been over almost 30 years, but the devastation wreaked by American chemical warfare attacks lasts to today and beyond. According to a letter released by the Vietnam Society for Agent Orange Victims:

"[M]illions of Vietnamese have been living with the threat of dioxin and its effects and contracting fatal diseases. Thousands of people died in pain and anger. Many women suffered birth deformities or became sterile. It is most upsetting to see their future generation, who had not been born during the war, who are dioxin victims as they have been born with deformities, unable to enjoy at least for one moment the happiness as ordinary people. Agent Orange/dioxin victims are the most deprived."

The US Government recognizes that it deliberately dropped dangerous chemicals during the Vietnam War; the VA runs special compensation programs for US armed forces affected by Agent Orange. However, the US doesn't accept the need for compensation to the hundreds of thousands of South-East Asians who have been killed and horribly injured by their indiscriminate chemical warfare. In fact, the US doesn't even accept the fact that it engaged in chemical warefare against civilians. No, that sort of thing is only done by tyrants like Saddam Hussein.

We must never allow American silence to change history. That is why August 6th, 1945, needs to be remembered as the day America launched the modern age of weapons of mass destruction by killing more than 100,000 civilians with a single bomb over Hiroshima. And that is why August 9th, 1961, needs to be remembered as the day America launched an extraordinary and massive chemical warfare assault against the people of Vietnam, an attack that continues to kill right down to today. We must never forget.