Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
Agent Orange Still Claims Lives But U.S. Starts to Clean Up
Over eight years in the 1960's during the war in Vietnam the US government carried out operation Ranch Hand in which they sprayed 42,000,000 litres of a chemical defoliant called Agent Orange, which contained dioxins - some of the most toxic compounds known to mankind. The US used this chemical concotion to kill all the vegetation including rice. The rather unsubtle idea being to deprive the enemy of two of the basics pre-requisites to life - shelter and food.
Through importation and storage of large quantities of these chemicals the US government caused not only widespread contamination of the environment through spraying, but also left contamination hotspots such as in Biên Hòa City, where chemicals stored at an airbase leaked into the soil and groundwater. Dioxins are recalcitrant chemicals whch once created, persist in the environment for many years. In the west incinerators, power stations and other industrial processes that involve combustion are closely regulated to limit the release of even minute quantities of dioxins into the atmosphere. In the UK enquiries have been held into the release of dioxins from incinerators which have purportedly led to health impacts in clusters around the sites. The burden of proving dioxins caused these health impacts has been great due to the low levels released and the need for accuracy in sampling and analysis. However in Vietnam the US government allowed the release of such massive concentrations that health impact clusters are grossly obvious.
The legacy of US involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam range from cancers to multiple miscarriages to developmental defects, resulting in physical and mental deformities. In the late 1990's a survey of blood samples taken from people living in communities exposed to dioxin found that 95% had dioxin levels 135 times greater than people living outwith these areas. This means Agent Orange dioxins will continue to affect generations to come.
As a consequence of the US government actions in Vietnam huge areas of the country's soil and water remain polluted. The Vietnamese say the US government breached the 1925 Geneva Convention, which prohibits the use of any chemical weapon to kill plants during time of war. Despite approaches to successive American Presidents no compensation has been elicited, therefore the victims have had to resort to legal action against the US Government and the chemical companies involved. In 1984/85 the Dow and Monsanto chemical companies paid out around $236,000,000 in settlement to soldiers whose health had been affected by working wth Agent Orange during the war. The companies never however admitted liability and still claim they were instructed to produce the chemicals by the US government.
In June 2011 a project commenced between the Vietnam and US governments to start cleaning up some of the pollution. Alas nothing has yet been agreed to help the ongoing vitims.
Through importation and storage of large quantities of these chemicals the US government caused not only widespread contamination of the environment through spraying, but also left contamination hotspots such as in Biên Hòa City, where chemicals stored at an airbase leaked into the soil and groundwater. Dioxins are recalcitrant chemicals whch once created, persist in the environment for many years. In the west incinerators, power stations and other industrial processes that involve combustion are closely regulated to limit the release of even minute quantities of dioxins into the atmosphere. In the UK enquiries have been held into the release of dioxins from incinerators which have purportedly led to health impacts in clusters around the sites. The burden of proving dioxins caused these health impacts has been great due to the low levels released and the need for accuracy in sampling and analysis. However in Vietnam the US government allowed the release of such massive concentrations that health impact clusters are grossly obvious.
The legacy of US involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam range from cancers to multiple miscarriages to developmental defects, resulting in physical and mental deformities. In the late 1990's a survey of blood samples taken from people living in communities exposed to dioxin found that 95% had dioxin levels 135 times greater than people living outwith these areas. This means Agent Orange dioxins will continue to affect generations to come.
As a consequence of the US government actions in Vietnam huge areas of the country's soil and water remain polluted. The Vietnamese say the US government breached the 1925 Geneva Convention, which prohibits the use of any chemical weapon to kill plants during time of war. Despite approaches to successive American Presidents no compensation has been elicited, therefore the victims have had to resort to legal action against the US Government and the chemical companies involved. In 1984/85 the Dow and Monsanto chemical companies paid out around $236,000,000 in settlement to soldiers whose health had been affected by working wth Agent Orange during the war. The companies never however admitted liability and still claim they were instructed to produce the chemicals by the US government.
In June 2011 a project commenced between the Vietnam and US governments to start cleaning up some of the pollution. Alas nothing has yet been agreed to help the ongoing vitims.
Clean-Up Of Agent Orange Used In Vietnam War May Finally Begin - YouTube
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Thursday, 14 July 2011
Darkside Quotes - Tony Blair
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| Tony Blair, former UK prime minister |
Tony Blair the last Labour Prime Minister of the UK took the country to war under false pretences. His government produced a dossier that supposedly said Saddam Hussein held Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that could be deployed in 45 minutes. The conclusion was he had to be stopped. The UK has ever since been subject of retaliation attacks by Jihadists.
Blair also saw his electorate make the greatest anti-war protests the UK has seen. He has faced enquiries into why he took the country to war without, as it turns out, any evidence of the presence of WMD's in Iraq. He was called in for questioning twice by police to answer questions about his government taking money for honours i.e. getting a seat in the House of Lords.
Here are a few select quotes from his three terms in office, which show the range of his media manipulation to suit his purpose.
"I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves."
7 April, Daily Telegraph. On having been elected prime Minister, 1995
7 April, Daily Telegraph. On having been elected prime Minister, 1995
"I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people - and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."
4 March, when asked by Michael Parkinson on ITV1 what role his Christian faith had in his decision-making over the Iraq war, 2006. Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office.
4 March, when asked by Michael Parkinson on ITV1 what role his Christian faith had in his decision-making over the Iraq war, 2006. Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office.
"We are not the master now. The people are the masters. We are the servants of the people. We will never forget that."
7 May, addressing Labour MPs at Church House 1997
7 May, addressing Labour MPs at Church House 1997
"I know that this course of action has produced deep divisions of opinion in our country."
21 March, broadcast to the nation after the start of the war, 2003
21 March, broadcast to the nation after the start of the war, 2003
"I think most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy and I am."
16, November, BBC's On The Record, during the controversy over a donation to the Labour Party by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, 1997
16, November, BBC's On The Record, during the controversy over a donation to the Labour Party by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, 1997
"On the family, we need two or three eye-catching initiatives that are entirely conventional in terms of their attitude to the family... We need more. I should be personally associated with as much of this as possible."
17 July, leaked Blair memo, 1998
17 July, leaked Blair memo, 1998
"A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders. I really do."
8 April, on arriving in Belfast for the talks which produced the Good Friday Agreement, 1998. A process for which the foundations had been laid by Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and who Blair promptly sidelined, taking all the glory from the historic agreement which helped to consolidate peace in Northern Ireland.
8 April, on arriving in Belfast for the talks which produced the Good Friday Agreement, 1998. A process for which the foundations had been laid by Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and who Blair promptly sidelined, taking all the glory from the historic agreement which helped to consolidate peace in Northern Ireland.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Noam Chomsky - Duplicity of the West on Dictators and Democracy
Support your favourite dictator until it no longer suits you, then exhort some suitable rhetoric until it becomes aparrent who you need to influence next.
BBC News - Newsnight - Noam Chomsky and Jeremy Paxman's interview in full
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Monday, 6 June 2011
Peace On Earth
"Talking to its enemies is not something that has ever come easily to America, a country that believes in good and evil, black and white, with few shades of gray. Nevertheless, that’s the way most wars end. And as President Obama has at last acknowledged, it’s the way the 10-year war in Afghanistan must and should end."
The Newsweek article from which that quote originates goes on to compare the war in Afghanistan to the Vietnam War. This analogy bears little relvance however, since that war ended without any constructive negotiation. President Obama should instead look to world history and not just the US history of wars to see how resolution can be achieved -after all, navel gazing will get you nowhere.
Take for example the UK terrorist war in Northern Ireland, which raged from 1969 to 1997 and included seriously aggressive offences on mainland Britain, notably; the Brighton Hotel Bombing in 1984, which was an attempt to assissinate then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; assassination of Earl Mountbatten in 1979 and assissnation of MP Airey Neave in 1979 by car bomb as he left the House of Commons underground carpark. All assaults on the ruling upper class by an aggrieved army of vigilantes whose country and economy had been pillaged for decades.
This war of terrorist atrocities was brought to an end when a woman, Mo Mowlam forced the arrogant male propogandists to face up to their ego's and arrive at compromises which meant a real peace settlement. This era in Northen Ireland's history has been admirably dramatised by Channel 4 with Mo played by Oscar winning actress Julie Walters.
It is no coincidence that during this stormy period of peace talks Mo was facing her own mortality, enduring the torment of ongoing treatment for a brain tumour, which ultimately took her life, though not before she set in motion the end of the peace stalemate in Northern Ireland. Mo's personal struggle, though kept incredibly private was undoubtedly an influence upon the individuals involved in the talks. Mo's gift was an ability to relate at a human level, to cut through the thickest of political hides and dismantle the foundations of rhetoric and bluff that kept the war going. Mo's personable character got directly to the heart of the matter, she reached across the divides and the people of all sides respected her as an individual who stood for the truth.
The key point is that constructive dialogue was only entered into once greed, vanity, anger, bigotry and vengeance were swept aside. On behalf of the UK government one of the greatest compromises was to rescind the authority of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which had for years exerted the Queens influence with what many people took to include all the aforesaid biases. Allowing the people of Northern Ireland their own police force meant there was little tendency for further recourse to the vigilante policing of the IRA.
Importantly the UK government did not have a vested economic interest in Northern Ireland, which was actually economically devastated by years of warfare, that had resulted in little inward investment by national or international bodies. It was the ability of all parties after so many years of entrenched views and ideals to capitulate on a number of fronts that fuelled the peace process.
So in Afghanistan the US must question its motives honestly and realistically. The rest of the world knows, the US does not just want peace for the world, it wants what is economically expedient for itself. Constructive dialogue with the Taliban will never happen while the US holds a hidden agenda on the economic gains it wants out of any settlement. This means oil revenue and access for US companies to foreign capital.
This may be Obama's biggest challenge. Can he sweep aside US foreign policy rhetoric and arrive at a peace solution that includes compromise. The similarities to the war in Northern Ireland are remarkable. The IRA fought against the British ruling class. We now have a world war where the disadvantaged are fighting against the USA ruling class. The US cannot continue to extort peace when they always win out economically to the disadvantage of others.
The Newsweek article from which that quote originates goes on to compare the war in Afghanistan to the Vietnam War. This analogy bears little relvance however, since that war ended without any constructive negotiation. President Obama should instead look to world history and not just the US history of wars to see how resolution can be achieved -after all, navel gazing will get you nowhere.
Take for example the UK terrorist war in Northern Ireland, which raged from 1969 to 1997 and included seriously aggressive offences on mainland Britain, notably; the Brighton Hotel Bombing in 1984, which was an attempt to assissinate then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; assassination of Earl Mountbatten in 1979 and assissnation of MP Airey Neave in 1979 by car bomb as he left the House of Commons underground carpark. All assaults on the ruling upper class by an aggrieved army of vigilantes whose country and economy had been pillaged for decades.
This war of terrorist atrocities was brought to an end when a woman, Mo Mowlam forced the arrogant male propogandists to face up to their ego's and arrive at compromises which meant a real peace settlement. This era in Northen Ireland's history has been admirably dramatised by Channel 4 with Mo played by Oscar winning actress Julie Walters.
It is no coincidence that during this stormy period of peace talks Mo was facing her own mortality, enduring the torment of ongoing treatment for a brain tumour, which ultimately took her life, though not before she set in motion the end of the peace stalemate in Northern Ireland. Mo's personal struggle, though kept incredibly private was undoubtedly an influence upon the individuals involved in the talks. Mo's gift was an ability to relate at a human level, to cut through the thickest of political hides and dismantle the foundations of rhetoric and bluff that kept the war going. Mo's personable character got directly to the heart of the matter, she reached across the divides and the people of all sides respected her as an individual who stood for the truth.
The key point is that constructive dialogue was only entered into once greed, vanity, anger, bigotry and vengeance were swept aside. On behalf of the UK government one of the greatest compromises was to rescind the authority of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which had for years exerted the Queens influence with what many people took to include all the aforesaid biases. Allowing the people of Northern Ireland their own police force meant there was little tendency for further recourse to the vigilante policing of the IRA.
Importantly the UK government did not have a vested economic interest in Northern Ireland, which was actually economically devastated by years of warfare, that had resulted in little inward investment by national or international bodies. It was the ability of all parties after so many years of entrenched views and ideals to capitulate on a number of fronts that fuelled the peace process.
So in Afghanistan the US must question its motives honestly and realistically. The rest of the world knows, the US does not just want peace for the world, it wants what is economically expedient for itself. Constructive dialogue with the Taliban will never happen while the US holds a hidden agenda on the economic gains it wants out of any settlement. This means oil revenue and access for US companies to foreign capital.
This may be Obama's biggest challenge. Can he sweep aside US foreign policy rhetoric and arrive at a peace solution that includes compromise. The similarities to the war in Northern Ireland are remarkable. The IRA fought against the British ruling class. We now have a world war where the disadvantaged are fighting against the USA ruling class. The US cannot continue to extort peace when they always win out economically to the disadvantage of others.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Landmine Detecting Rats
In a country ravaged by war for decades, using the local rats to sniff out and identify landmines is helping people return to farming off the land. Where there is a will there is a way.
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