80 million unexploded US cluster bomblets still in Lao soil

[bamboozle]

The Lao government have set a target of 2020 for 100% bomb decontamination, they recently admitted that this is unlikey. got to agree. theres simply so much of it out there[/quote]

According to that video and quite a few websites it will take a century or more to clean it up. I wouldn't think that people go hunting for cluster bombies to sell for scrap metal either as suggested by one person here. In fact for somebody to even suggest it is pretty sick in my opnion.

[Lao-miner]

Sadly, they certainly do go looking for bombs for scrap. its high tensile and gets a good price. Pretty tempting if your a subsistance farmer.Its all well and good when they find exploded shrapnel but they do find a lot of bombies and try to hacksaw them open to first get the explosive, We were asked to remove a 500 pounder from the village outside our site by locals , Electricite Du Laos dug it up while installing power transmission lines, No problem they simply offset that pylon and left the bomb, While our uxo department were trying to figure out the logistics of either blowing it up or removing it to somewhere safe to blow up. ( not there best option according to the bomb guys) Someone in a vigo stole it one night , Thats some daft *hit

[nkstan]

Although I never believed we should have been there,we were and at war!How does anyone believe that Laos was nuetral?If the NV was using Laos for their supply route,we had a right and duty to bomb them!The lives of our troops were directly affected!

You were at war? Why were you at war?
Were you invited to invade Vietnam by the French? Or did Vietnam declare war on you?
Yes, the US Government at the time declared and confirmed that Laos was a neutral country.
A right and duty to bomb them? What right and duty? - you had no right to be there let alone a duty to bomb Laos without declaring war on the country.
The lives of your troops were directly affected? what about the lives of the Laotians? Don't they count as much?

The French refused to allow NATO bases unless we bailed them out of VN,which is the real reason we were there!
There are always victims and I am sorry for the loss of Laotian life,but if you are asking me to make a choice,I would always choose my troops.
I do agree that the USA should be responsible for clearing the ordinance!

[tigerryan]

It's difficult for the US to be "responsible" for clearing the UXO out of the jungles of Asia when the government Vientiane does not want us there. Not only do they not want us there the political thugs running the country don't give a rats about the country bumpkins in Khammouan. The US has spent fortunes in grafts to Lao officials to recover our war dead. Lao is a proxy of Hanoi and it is Vietnam that should pick up the tab for the clean up, oh but wait they don't give a crap either. The folks living in rural Laos would be angered if the US walked into villages and took all the scrap metal laying around. I can appreciate that many feel sorry for the plight of folks that need to live around UXO's but that is what happens when we impart our values on a society that sees thing in a light that we will never understand and I willing to accept the fact that its just the way it is.

[FrazeeDK]

while the Lao oligarchs that inhabit the Politburo used to be the proxies of the Vietnamese, the Chinese have pretty much bought the off completely.. As for the comment on the JPAC recovery missions, you're spot on.. The Lao basically have restricted the missions to maximize the money they make off them and stretch them out seemingly forever..