We can no longer condemn others for much of anything, especially on human rights, torture, and destroying countries we invade, for we have joined the ranks of those we once held in contempt for the same. We removed Saddam, only to inhabit his Palaces and build one of our own, while torturing many we have arrested in the country that this Saddam, our Saddam, once held power. We supposedly invaded because this Saddam, our Saddam, was torturing and killing his people!
Welcome to the 21st century of 1984!
We recently had a report, put out by our sometime Secretary of State on human trafficking while we as a nation have been grabbing people from all over, apparently loosing some also, and sending them to secret prisons and countries that practise torture, some while we have been condemning them of their human rights records and more, at the same time, strange bedfellows indeed. While reports keep coming out we've been doing our own torturing, must have made this Saddam, and our other bud bin Laden proud, before we hung this Saddam, or did we, what happened to all those look alikes we heard so much about.
We're past any point of redemtion and forgiveness by others.
Agent Orange still ravages Vietnam
Decades after war, dioxin levels are high at Danang
Nguyen Thi Kieu Nhung sits inside her family home next to the Danang airbase in Danang, Vietnam on Thursday, May 21, 2007. The girl was born with physical deformities, including twisted limbs, a misshapen head, and protruding eyes suspected by local health officials to have been caused by dioxin in the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. More than 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange has emerged anew with a scientific study that has found extraordinarily high levels of health-threatening contamination at the former U.S. air base at Danang.
Five-year-old girl Tran Huynh Thuong Sinh, who was born without eyes in the Binh Dinh province of Vietnam, is fed breakfast by a nurse at the "Peace Village" center at Tu Du hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Friday, May 25, 2007. Officials at the hospital suspect that the dioxin in Agent Orange blocks the receptors in a developing fetus, preventing the hormones that would normally instruct the cells to form eyes from doing so.
The Legacy of all Wars, but especially of Wars Of Choice! The innocents never stop suffering, nor do many who fight these conflicts, sent by those who won't! The damages live on even for those not living at the time but enter the once Devestated Countries years later through their birth's.
Deformed, in this case, by Toxins used as weapons of War. Or are killed and maimed by long ago ordinance, while out playing, still active enough to reek the damages it was first intended for, to kill and maim.
Slideshow | Agent Orange ravages Vietnam
Only one way to get any semblance of what we think we are and what the world thought we were is by coming to terms with our past.
Getting rid of our collective denial on Vietnam would be a great start, because we will need to come to terms with our disasterous current policies in Iraq and Afganistan starting Now also.
And first and formost is to help those in Vietnam still reaping the damages of the Toxins used in that small country that did nothing to deserve what we inflicted on it and the people of!
We already have seen the damages to the people, and especially the children, of our current debacles, and many of us can see what the future will bring to the innocents not here yet, and that collective damage must be in our own conciousness and not be forgotten. We must find the means to help, becoming the America we think we are, by Example and Action, with deep sorrow for what we allowed to happen!
Don't just pass by, click on the link above and read the report of the snippits from just below.
DANANG, Vietnam --
More than 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange has emerged anew with a scientific study that has found extraordinarily high levels of health-threatening contamination at the former U.S. air base at Danang.
"They're the highest levels I've ever seen in my life," said Thomas Boivin, the scientist who conducted the tests this spring. "If this site were in the U.S. or Canada, it would require significant studies and immediate cleanup."
Or would it? Apparently not in Canada:
Pressure building on Ottawa to compensate vicitms of Agent Orange spraying
Federal Liberal Albina Guarnieri said Wednesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government are deliberately stalling on a commitment to compensate those affected by the testing of defoliants such as Agent Orange and Agent Purple in the 1960s.
Guarnieri, the party‘s veterans affairs critic, has raised the issue in the House of Commons, pointing out that both Harper and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson pledged speedy cash settlements in the controversy surrounding the testing of combat defoliants, as well as other powerful herbicides used at the base over the years.
And we here in the states know what happens when sites are found that are grossly contaminated by our good citizen corporations, as well as the DoD. But through the anger of the citizens, sooner rather than later, contaminated sites are cleaned up, ussually by us footing at least part of the bill the wealthy corporations, who did the known damage, won't.
Earlier tests by Hatfield, which has been working in Vietnam since 1994, showed that dioxin levels were safe across most of Vietnam. But until the study of the old air base at Danang, the consulting firm had never had access to some half-dozen "hotspots" where Agent Orange, a defoliant designed to deny Vietnamese jungle cover, was stored and mixed before being loaded onto planes.
Not knowing what your surroundings contain just doing what one must to survive can bring on a survival no one would want, especially for their children.
Nguyen Van Dung, 38, and his family have lived just outside the air base since 1990. Dung used to bring home fish he caught in Lotus Lake.
At about age 2, his daughter began manifesting grotesque health problems.
Now 7, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nhung's shin bones curve sharply and appear to be broken in several places, as though smashed with a hammer. Her right shoulder bone protrudes unnaturally, stretching her skin. She has only two teeth, her right eye bulges from its socket and she has sores on her face. She can't walk; she can only slide around on her rear end.
The Vietnamese military has taken some steps to contain the dioxin, but Le Ke Son, Vietnam's top Agent Orange official, said cleaning up Danang and other Agent Orange hotspots is likely to cost at least $40 million, far more than the developing country can afford.
"We have asked the American side to be more active, not just in doing research into the effects of Agent Orange but in overcoming its consequences," Son said. "Until we resolve this issue, we can't really say that we have truly normalized relations."
One of the only things left to the Vietnamesse, which should already be getting the full backing needed from us, who reaped the damage on their country, is to use our oft use own practise, bring Lawsuits!
And many of us who fought in that conflict and belong to veterans groups like Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against The War and others, have joined the Vietnamesse people in their fight for the just compensation owed, not only against the Chemical Manufacturers, but also our Government.
Second Vietnam Agent Orange Justice Tour, June 10-28, 2007
Come out in Support of the Vietnamese AO Victims Lawsuit against the US Chemical Manufacturers
Court of Appeals hearing June 18, 2007.
Wars do not end when the bombs stop falling and the fighting ceases. The devastation continues long after, in the land and in the minds and bodies of the affected population.
Today, three million Vietnamese suffer the effects of chemical defoliants used by the United States during the Vietnam War.
Appeal of the Vietnam's Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin,
Biographies of the AO delegation
Read more...Much more
One of the places, in Vietnam, that are taking care of children, and others, inflicted with Toxin Poison is
The Thanh Xuan Peace Village in Vietnam
The full extent of the effects from the dioxin is still being researched in Vietnam. An estimated 3 million Vietnamese were exposed to the chemical and roughly one million suffer from health problems. The effects of dioxin on human beings is both physical and mental, but worst of all, trans-generational; which is to say that once in the human bloodstream and environmental air supply of an effected region, dioxin can effect children born generations from now.
Needs for the Peace Village
Just like a small family has many needs, so does a big family need even more. The Peace Village is a great example of this, and listed below are a few of the most needed items.
Meet the Children & More Photos
Visit the site above to find out much more about the Village, it's needs, those staying there, and goals.
Agent Orange victims in US for new hearing with a short Video at site page.
Some recent reports about Agent Orange:
New studies possible if 25-year Agent Orange study archive is saved
Agent orange girl determined to overcome her destiny
The strong-willed My teaches herself to read and write and even write stories although she has never gone to school
Documentary shows deadly impact of Agent Orange
Concert to support Vietnamese Agent Orange victims
VietNamNet Bridge - A concert themed “Raising singing for implement of justice” featuring the popular song Vi sao em chet? {What is the reason for your death?} by the late musician Thanh Truc, will be broadcast over the internet through the website “Chorus for Justice” at 3 p.m. on June 17.
The concert aims to support the lawsuit, due to take place in New York on June 18, filed by Vietnamese victims of the wartime defoliant Agent Orange.
The song is now up along with the ability for you to sign on to their Petition, joining them with your support.
What made you died?
Composer: Thanh Truc
The summer is coming in every street with the sound of the cicada but you still close your eyes painfully.
Oh my litte brother, a little orphan, no longer will you see. Oh my litte brother, a little orphan, no longer will you sing.
Its Dioxin which is killing you. Its Dioxin which is killing you.
Dioxin once killed my mother in a raid, leaving me with a little orphaned brother.
I have striven every moment of my life with difficulties to take you back from the darkness, from the Death. Bring you back to a brighter life
But now. It’s Dioxin once again. Being the war’s legacy. Corroding every cell in your body. And it’s killing you.
My little brother. My little orphan. Mummy, never can I meet my beloved brother again…
there's a player above the song transcript, click on one of the listed to hear the song
Cuba Says Vietnam Deserves US Compensation
And Cuba, along with many others, are right, Long Over Due Just Compensation!!
With Iraq and Afganistan Compensation coming on rapidly!!
If they were sent to fight, they are too few. If they were sent to die, they are too many!
Is 'Funding' Really For Troops?
What Happened To Funding and Oversite For Military/Veteran Care In Previous Congresses?
1 comment:
Bless you, and your good works. War is a sad thing. So many innocents die for the sake of a few that are in control. Their live often cut short before they ever start. I will keep you, and the work you do, in my thoughts. Peace & Love
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