American Legacy In Laos

  We were going to post our blog about the weeks in Thailand but we are going to hold off for a few days because we want to talk about what we saw and learned today.

Sculpture made from recycled bomb parts, COPE Centre, Vientiane, Laos

Today we visited COPE (Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise) in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There we learned some incredible and horrifying facts:

- Between 1964 and 1973 the United States carried out 580,000 bombing missions dropping over 2,000,000 tons of ordinance (more than all sides in WWII). That works out to 1 raid every 8 minutes for 9 years straight making it the most heavily bombed nation per capita in the world. This was onto a neutral nation that did not support either side during the Vietnam War though the Vietnamese did use their territory to move men and supplies to the fight in South Vietnam.

- This bombing campaign left a legacy of 80 million unexploded bombs and bomblets (cluster bombs). No part of the country is spared though some areas are more heavily affected. Since then 20,000 civilians have been killed and injured with a new person being killed or maimed every 3 to 4 days in 2013 - 40 years after the bombing stopped.

- Laos, while growing, is still one of the 25 poorest countries in the world and its development has been hampered by this problem that it doesn't have the resources to deal with. Until an area has been cleared of unexploded ordinance things that everyone should take for granted can't be done. New fields cannot be developed for farming. Roads cannot be built. Schools cannot be built. Clean water projects cannot be developed. Children will not stop dying because they are looking for scrap metal to sell for 12 cents a pound. This is a finite problem. It can be fixed. Once these bombs are gone they are gone for good.

The world has passed a treaty banning cluster munitions (the most common type of unexploded ordinance) that has been signed by 110 countries but not the United States. We have not signed it because then it makes us liable for the medical care and support of the victims of our bombs, the Russians and Chinese won't sign it, and because we have claimed that we can build "smart clusterbombs" with self destruct mechanisms in them. There are a lot of countries that have unexploded munitions problems, often secondary to proxy wars during the Cold War. However, here in Laos this is an entirely American made problem. These bombs are stamped "Made In The USA" and were dropped by the United States Air Force. This is our problem! We should be the ones fixing it.

Things you can do:
- Get educated. See www.COPELAOS.org or www.maginternational.org/USA for more information on these issues.

- Donate. It only costs $75 to fit someone with a prosthetic limb here and that can change an entire families life.

- Write your Congress(wo)man urging them to push for the signing of the Convention of Cluster Munitions.

- Volunteer - if you are an orthopedic surgeon, physiotherapist, or occupational therapist then your skills are very much needed here.

Canoe made from a B-52 fuel drop tank, COPE Centre, Vientiane, Laos