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US Demands Raped Cambodia Repay War Debt
Stephen Lendman
During its war on Southeast Asia, America raped and destroyed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Terror-bombing massacred civilians indiscriminately. A decade of merciless war took millions of lives, around eight million tons of ordnance used in Vietnam alone, threefold WW II’s tonnage - about 300 tons for every Vietnamese man, woman, child, infant, the elderly and infirm.
Herbicidal warfare was waged using deadly agent orange. Millions of gallons of dioxin-containing defoliant contaminated over five million acres. Exposure to minute amounts causes serious health problems or death.
Other terror-weapons were used, including napalm, white phosphorous, cluster bombs and depleted uranium.
Beginning in March 1969, Cambodia and Laos were secretly bombed, allegedly to destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sanctuaries.
Terror-bombing took about 600,000 lives, mostly civilians, helping the Khmer Rouge gain power in 1975. Unspeakable horrors followed.
Thousands of US ground forces were involved, destroying dozens of towns, villages and hamlets, many thousands more killed, mostly defenseless noncombatants.
Historian Gabriel Kolko earlier said “(a)ll that the United States has the ability to accomplish…is to impose immeasurable suffering on people…”
In his “Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience,” he quoted a US colonel, infamously saying “(w)e had to destroy the town to save it.”
Few Americans realize how much Southeast Asians suffered. Unexploded ordnance remains buried in fields, roads, forests, villages and rivers.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were raped. Fundamental laws of war were violated. America remains unaccountable for decades of war crimes.
Washington demands Cambodia repay $500 million in “war debt” it claims was used for food. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen calls it “dirty money” - used by the US-backed Lon Nol regime for weapons.
America “dropped bombs on our heads and then they ask us to repay. When we do not repay, they tell the IMF not to lend us money,” Hun Sen explained.
He asked Washington to cancel the “dirty debt.” US officials refuse. Cambodian Daily journalist James Pringle said the nation “does not owe even a brass farthing to the US for help in destroying its people, its wild animals, its rice fields, and forest cover.”
America owes Cambodia and all other countries it raped and destroyed a debt that can never be repaid.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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