Laos as the world's most heavily bombed country: what that means both for Laotians and for the US...

5 million USD...

less than a dollar per Lao

2010 US contributionto UXO clearance in Laos...

(For those of you who don't live in Laos, UXO = UneXploded Ordnance..)

870 kgworth of bombs

1964~1973 US contributionto generating UXO in Laos...Back then, Lao people were judged worthy of receivingmuch more:

1 Lao

That's more than 20 kg of bombs per kg of Lao.

Or in financial terms...Each Lao was delivered 7 000 USD worth of bombs

over 9 years

0.72 USD/citizen/yearof US-financed UXO-

related aid

Yes, that's9700 times less!

26 bombies each,discounting the many extras

At least 288 million bombies, shells and minesfor only 3 .1 million people

With love, from America

Indiscriminate killingThe CBU-75 Sadeye cluster bomb, the most commonly used over Laos, carried 600 BLU-26 bomblets embedded with 300 small iron bearings. Its total lethal area? 157 soccer fields...

No wonder at least 80% of the victims were civilians...

Between 50 000 and 350 000 Lao were killed in a 9-year covert war not even made public to the US Senate

Wrong place, wrong time...

Plus another 50 000 post-war casualties due to UXO...

You thought that the Vietnam war was limited to Vietnamese theatres of operation?

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3

Only 23% of the total number of bombs were dropped on the official US war zone (ie. Vietnam)

Laotians received 24.6 times more bombs per capita than the Vietnamese ; Cambodians 10.1 times more...

M t of bombs dropped...

during WW2

on Vietnam

on Cambodia

on Laos

(official targets - actualfigures are even higher for Laos)

The bombings of Laos and Cambodia werefully-fledged war crimes

Covert bombing of neutral countries

Aborted bombing missions over North Vietnam routinely led to emptying the bomb cargo over Laos

After the US officially withdraw from the Vietnam war by the end of January 1973, it emptied its stockpile over Laos and Cambodia until Senate reacted... in May 1973

Official end of the US implication in Vietnam war

On a sidenote, Henry Kissinger, the mastermind of the massacre, received the Nobel Peace Prize that very same year.

You find that hard to believe? Think again:

Bombs over Cambodia...

Probably more than 80 M units of UXO still scattered around. A third of them didn't explode on impact...

Let's try to see life as a rural Lao in UXO zone...

Yes, that would be the actual number for a family of 5!

With 125 USD, I can either plant 1 ha of maize and get some food for my family

Rural economics 101"Planting maize in Xieng Khouang province"

… or pay the first out of 28 installments to clear my land. Hey, and that's if I could somehow manage

to get the money interest-free!

My daily income is around 0.60 USD a day. During the wet season, I cultivate rice and produce my

yearly needs.

Rural economics 101"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"

Dry season now. Should I: (A) Make ends meet the difficult way? (B) Collect UXO scrap and make 1~3 USD a day.

65% of casualties occur during essential daily activities... After a while, collecting UXO doesn't even seem more

dangerous than lighting a fire or hoeing through the ground.

Rural economics 101"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"

Went where the money is?

Collect 20~30 kg of metal.A defused BLU-26 bombie weighs only 350 g...

That'll be 71 bombies to handle today.

Rural economics 101"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"

And what about kids?

scrap collecting pocket money ice-cream0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

1 day incomecollecting UXO scrap

typical amountof pocket money

cost of a cheapice-cream cone

99,6% know the equation

"UXO = danger"

Yet 52% collect UXO scrap metal...

A theoretical 16 billion USD would be necessary to clean up the whole country. After all, 75% was bombed to bits...

High-priority zones, based on risk to human life and agricultural value, could be cleared for only a fraction of that: 150 million USD.

Think of it as an economic miracle: when else does 1% of the money get you most of the value?

How much is needed?

War economicsNow for the US point of view

The bombing of Laos cost around 57 billion USD (in 2010 dollars) – a quarter of the total cost of the Vietnam war.

5 million USD programmed for UXO clearance by the US= 7 hours worth of bombing.

150 million USD for cleaning high-priority areas= 42 days worth of bombing.

War economicsLet's play pretend

The US is presently pretending that they stopped bombing Laos a few hours after that actually happened. That's how they manage to find 5 million dollars a year to give out to Laos.

Pretend harder!

How about pretending the mess finished a month afterwards? A zero US-casualty month. With the cash, clean up Laos... a real bargain!

Compared resources50 cents per US citizen could help ease a bit of guilt and solve the most crucial UXO issues in Laos.Allocating 0.01% of the US federal budget … or 0.5%of the budget of the Department of Defense would even solve the problem entirely in 5 years.

Things aren't going fast. At this pace, clearing high-priority zones in Laos will take decades. As for clearing the rest of the country... it should take 3,000 years. Good thing rust works a bit faster than that!

What about the treaty?The US didn't sign the convention on cluster munition bombs. Better stand ground with moral heroes such as Kim Jong-Il, right?

Oh, and apparently the US has up to 1 billion bombies in stock.

That's how responsible the US is at the moment. They have enough ordnance to bomb the most bombed country on earth 11 times worse than the first time, bombie-wise...