Agent Orange
Agent Orange was a chemical used during the war in Vietnam, some fifty years ago. The Americans used this stuff, which contains dioxin, one of the most terrible toxins we know, to throw it over the woods of Vietnam so that they could find the people, ‘the enemy’, who were hiding there. This toxin left nothing but bare fields, all the trees and other vegetation were dead. But these are aren’t even the worst effects of this horrible practice, the toxin also does something to people:
‘Dioxin is a virtual ‘genetic time bomb’: once it has entered the body, it may cause any number of birth defects in the children of those exposed, ranging from stillbirth or infant death to mental retardation or physical deformity.’ [source]
People who were exposed to Agent Orange will have to suffer for the rest of their lives. Children who are born, without having anything to do with a war that took place over fifty years ago, have defects that will affect their lives. Children are born blind, with missing limbs or are dead, even before they’re born. What did they have to do with the troubles of communism, the war of Johnson or even the Vietcong warriors that hid in the woods? Why do they have to suffer because of other people’s useless wars?
The American soldiers who had to cope with the effects of Agent Orange started a lawsuit and received tons of money to compensate them for their disabilities. Nobody has given a penny to the children in Vietnam, who are born with the same defects that will affect their lives even more than the lives of wealthy American veterans.
Am I the only who finds this unbelievable, ridiculous, outrageous even? It goes beyond words, there’s no name for it. Why do little children have to suffer, why do innocent people have to face the consequences of a war that they didn’t have anything to do with, everyday? Why do we bomb villages, why do we spray toxins on trees, why? For some noble cause, to keep the world from harm? No. To fight our stupid little wars, to get what we want, to not loose what we think is ours. Since when do politics consist of playing with people’s lives? Who ever told those people that their stupid principles are more important than the life of a five year old?
‘You are precious and honored in My sight, I love you.’
-Isaiah 43:3
Life is precious in God’s eyes. Nature and people are precious in God’s eyes. God loves it! Who are we, tell me, who are we, to destroy something that is precious in God’s eyes? Who are we to put our futile and meaningless ‘principles’ above the life that God finds precious?
Nobody, we are nobody.
Read this.
4 Comments »
Inge – first of all, I completely agree. I remember studying the Vietnam war last year, and it breaks my heart.
There are more problems to this, though. Even if the US hadn’t used napalm, or “Agent Orange” as you call it, it’s hard to imagine any other way that war could have been fought. It was a guerilla war, something no one was truly accustomed to or knew how to handle on such a scale. (And to make everything even worse, the modern media coverage made Americans at home rise up against it, making the entire war pointless. (Here’s to hoping no Vietnam vet ever reads that line.)) This means the Vietcong hid their troops among civilians, which could have meant that in order to get rid of maybe a couple Vietcong soldiers, you’d have to kill a dozen villagers who were hiding said soldiers – willingly or not.
Even today, it’s hard to fight an “invisible enemy”; an enemy who uses its own people as a live shield. When you are willing to let the people be slaughtered for “the people’s” sake – something is wrong! In my opinion, an enemy who will ruin the lives of its own people to further their own cause is truly horrible.
Look – the Vietnam war was awful, as all wars are. That’s why we need to focus on helping the people who to this day are effected by it. We need to make sure the country gets back on track, and give its people a future. That is the real issue at hand!
Comment by the other kj — March 28, 2010 @ 1:27 am
Well, I understand what you’re trying to say but I believe that the entire war was in fact pointless. They only fought it because they believed that if Vietnam would become a communist nation, that whole the world would become one big communist party. And the worst thing is that they actually believed that! Such nonsense, but ok.
I believe that a nation has the right to fight for it’s own freedom. Vietnam had been a colony of France, and while all other colonies were freed and France itself even gave up there came America, who had nothing to do with it at all, saying that the Vietnamese people couldn’t be free. That’s just rubbish! They were the ones who were supposed to know how that feels, fighting for freedom with England and all. Why did they kills thousands of civilians because they wanted to be free, why did they fought a war in which there was no point in fighting and with which they had nothing to do at all?
By the way – napalm isn’t Agent Orange.
Comment by admin — March 28, 2010 @ 9:42 am
Well – the reasoning behind it was that if Vietnam became communist; the rest of Asia would follow. It wasn’t so much that the people couldn’t be free, it was the means through which they chose to be free. If you follow the US’ way of thinking, that communism was as dangerous as nazism, it makes sense. (Not mentioning communism vs capitalism, my personal preferences have zero to do with this debate.) But, what happened when the US stepped out? The rest of Asia became communist
Thus, you’re right – the war became pointless.
Also, sorry ’bout the misnaming, again. I was taught exactly that… ‘Tis why
I think it’s easy to say countries should stay within their own borders and only care about themselves. But really, if everyone had done that, dictators and oppressive regimes would be free to do as they please. Europe would be a white continent with Germany as its “head” (the US didn’t even wanna help us with that… But without ‘em we’d be screwed, lol), South Africa would most likely still have had apartheid and so on. Is that really the kind of world we want?
I just think it’s hard to have the right answer for every situation.
Comment by Kj 'gain — March 28, 2010 @ 7:56 pm
Thanks for sharing this article,really sad to know that this happened, World War1/World War2… really shows the depravity of the human heart, We so need Jesus, thank God for second chances, I have a weird feeling we heading in the same direction again and maybe even worse
Comment by loswl — May 4, 2010 @ 5:02 am
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