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Laos: Thousands suffering from the deadly aftermath of US bomb campaign
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/31/laos-deadly-aftermath-us-bomb-campaign-vietnam-air-attacksCalling Clint Eastwood to fix up these facts for mass consumption.
Laos: Thousands suffering from the deadly aftermath of US bomb campaign
Fifty years after US combat troops entered Vietnam, neighbouring Laos is still dealing with unexploded bombs from fierce air attacks
Matteo Fagotto
Saturday 31 January 2015 16.04 EST
“If I had arrived 15 minutes later at the hospital, I would have died. I underwent 12 blood transfusions in order to survive.” Sitting in the living room of her wooden stilt house, 39-year-old Buan Kham slowly lifted her skirt to expose what remains of her right leg, amputated at the knee. “If I hadn’t gone to the capital, Vientiane, I would have lost both,” she added, caressing the deep scars running along her left thigh.
Less than a year ago Kham, from the rural village of Na Dee, became one of the 20,000 victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO). The weapons are a lethal legacy of the Vietnam war, which turned this poor, landlocked south-east Asia nation of 6 million into the most bombed country per capita in the world.
It is 50 years since the first US combat troops entered Vietnam in March 1965. During that notorious conflict, the US dropped more than 270 million bombs in Laos as part of a CIA-run, top-secret operation aimed at destroying the North Vietnamese supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh trail and wiping out its local communist allies.
One-third of the bombs failed to explode on impact and have since claimed an average of 500 victims a year, mainly children and farmers forced to work on their contaminated fields to sustain their families. Despite tens of millions of dollars spent, only 1% of Laos territory has been cleared so far.
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UXOs affect not only the daily life of millions of people but the long-term development of the country by delaying the construction of clinics, schools and factories. At the current pace, it will take more than two millennia to clear the country.
Around 40% of the victims are children, who are often attracted by the toy-like shapes of the unexploded cluster bombs. While statistics show risk education programmes carried out by the Laos authorities have contributed to a steep decline in casualties (from 300 in 2008 to 41 in 2013), many accidents in remote areas often go unreported.
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...I found on the web: Explosive Ordnance Disposal in Laos 1995
In January 1995 I travelled around the world from my home in California, stopping in Pennsylvania, England and Laos. The purpose of the trip was to learn about the process of explosive ordnance disposal being used in Laos so that I could help develop the resources to keep the project going. Mennonite Central Committee had begun the project, but knew it could not hope to make enough land safe without the participation of governments or other large donors. The project is now a program of the Lao People's Democratic Republic funded through a United Nations Development Program trust fund. More than 1,000 workers are engaged in the process of returning land to the people. Their 2009 work plan is available, including an enlightening map showing bombed areas. Mines Advisory Group, the people who partnered with MCC to do the work, maintains a web site about the ongoing efforts in Laos. The MCC web site also has much interesting material about the project and the worldwide effort against unexploded ordnance. MCC's timeline of the Laos project shows how long-term these efforts have been. The Cluster Munition Coalition web site tracks the cluster bomb ban treaty. Here on Peacemaking.com you will find some of my personal photos and commentary.
--Duane Ruth-Heffelbow
Every 8 minutes from 1964 until 1973, the United States dropped one B-52 load of bombs on neutral Laos. The bombing cost $6.9 billion. It failed in its military objectives.
Enjoy another great success story of American myopic foreign policy...
They were dropping freedom and democracy! 
More bombs! Bombs for Syria. Bombs for Iraq. Bombs for Ukraine. Bombs for freedom. Bombs for democracy.
<== I hope I don't really need that, but I know better.
USA! USA! USA!
