Bombs Away

Bombs Away

   One hears that phrase from old war movies, and it usually has a somewhat good connotation, the bombs let free from their B-52 airplane holders and heading for the enemy below.  But on the other end, there would be nothing but horror, hearing the bombs whistling down, much as Londoners heard in WWII, calling the rocket-powered bombs "doodlebugs" for the rocket sound;  once that sound stopped, they knew that bombs (mostly incendiary and often with a delay switch to frustrate the firefighters) were out of fuel and heading downward to destroy part of their city.  But across the oceans, there is only one country that stands out as the most bombed country in the world (per capita), and ironically, war was never declared there (at least, not by the U.S. which did all the bombing)...Laos.

   More bombs than WWI and WWII were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War years from 1964 to 1973, an average of 177 planes a day dropping bombs every 8 minutes, 24/7 for 9 years.  This was all in an effort to stop the communists which were using a supply route from north Vietnam into south Vietnam (the U.S. suddenly pulled out of Laos and the government fell to the communists anyway...according to Wiki, Laos remains one of the most corrupt governments in the world to this day).  As with any war-torn country, the Lao people helping the U.S. were left with little to defend themselves and were easily overrun...they felt betrayed.  And in 1984, cinematographer Ellen Kuras decided to try and capture the feelings of one Lao family escaping the chaos and yet them finding out how difficult it was to enter the U.S. since Laos was considered a "secret" war and basically not a recognized one for asylum seekers (in fairness, the U.S. did allow for the immigration of nearly a quarter million Lao & Hmong who had made it to Thailand and sought help).  Her film came to be titled, The Betrayal.

   Admittedly, I tended to lump Laos in with Cambodia and Vietnam; it was a country's name I heard regularly, but knew little about (still don't, really).  But the film conveys this somewhat unreceptive attitude they encountered...who were they, not Chinese, not Vietnamese (and not really welcome by those countries refugees either).  Yet back in their own country, the over 260,000 anti-personnel bombs also dropped (cluster bombs which dispensed exploding mines) landed, and nearly 80,000 of those failed to detonate, leaving them buried and yet active in the ground (they still cause deaths and injuries with 40% of the casualties being children.  Laos was once called the "land of a million elephants," but that title is long gone...if the bombing didn't devastate the elephant population, the unexploded ordinance did, followed by the current illegal logging removing their habitat; they have nowhere to go, their ivory in demand by poachers, the forests where they feed now vanishing.  Laos, their hideaway, is disappearing.

   In 2013, Laos ranked the 138th place (tied with Cambodia) on the Human Development Index, indicating that Laos has lower medium to low development, says Wikipedia.  According to the Global Hunger Index (2013), Laos ranks as the 25th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 56 nations with the worst hunger situation(s).  Laos has had a poor human rights record most particularly dealing with the nation's acts of genocide being committed towards its Hmong population...Laos' strategy for development is based on generating electricity from its rivers and selling the power to its neighbors, namely Thailand, China, and Vietnam.   Its economy is accelerating rapidly with the demands for its metals.

   So here we have the classic situation, a country being devastated (and you can name your country, from Syria to the Congo to Sudan) and its people wondering what to do and where to go.  If you haven't seen some of the photos emerging (one recent story came from Time), you may be surprised at the extent of the damage.  There is little left to come home to, the concrete too difficult to move, the water and electricity gone and likely not coming back, the food, well, it's not there.  And the relief is apparently nowhere in sight.  Now imagine not you, but your children seriously injured, perhaps a leg severely bleeding or growing more and more infected.  And again, the relief is nowhere in sight...just more bombing.

    For many of these countries' peoples, they didn't ask for this bombing or fighting or dropping of mines.  For many of them, this is all puzzling, something in the background that actually has little to do with them other than perhaps add to a conversation over a meal or a coffee.  Thank heavens it hasn't come to their town (or your town)...and then suddenly, the bombs begin to fall.  How could this be, and where is the help?  How could their world change so quickly and for what reason?  It is puzzling to them and is puzzling to me.  What is this all about?  And even worse, the effort that goes into designing the weapons...

   In the next post, you'll discover something even more surprising...the creativity (if you can call it that) in the new bombs and mines now arriving.  From old school to today's technological wonders, destroying innocent lives has apparently been swept into the fold.

   ^.