For all the talk about other countries using chemical weapons and us fearing them for having them, the worst offender has always been the United States. We dropped the atomic bomb first, discarded old WMDs in the ocean and firebombed Vietnam with Agent Orange (Not to mention the current war on Columbian farmland drugs).
More than thirty years after the war ended, the Vietnamese appealed to the U.S. for the war crimes committed especially by the companies that manufactured Agent Orange by including the poisonous Dioxin compound. Even now with tremendous evidence on the plaintiff's side the Judges ruled for companies such as Dow, Monsanto and others.
From The Daily News:
Plaintiffs lawyer Jonathan C. Moore said the companies were reckless because they deliberately took steps to make sure the highly toxic chemical dioxin was not kept out of Agent Orange.
"I do believe the conduct of the defendants was intentional. They knew the risk and went ahead anyway," Moore said. "The effect it had on the people of Vietnam was certainly significant and drastic."
Judge Roger J. Miner said he heard indications that neither the government nor manufacturers were aware of the toxicity of Agent Orange.
Judge Peter Hall noted that U.S. troops were directly exposed to Agent Orange and U.S. aircraft sprayed more than 21 million gallons of it between 1962 and 1971 in attempts to destroy crops and remove foliage used as cover by communist forces.
Now we have over 10,000 American veterans that receive disability benefits due to the effects of Agent Orange. For these Judges to deny the same reality to the Vietnamese that lived on the land is absurd. Our government at the time was complicit in committing war crimes by using Dioxin in the Agent Orange and should hold itself accountable. Of course, accountability isn't an ideal that is upheld in our government anymore. So we shouldn't expect much from the Federal Appeals Court, especially since the Judiciary is being stacked with plenty of conservative Judges these days.
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