Operation Ranch Hand

[rpannier]

What is Operation Ranch Hand? you may ask.
For those of you not fluent in the Vietnam War, allow me.
Operation Ranch Hand was where the US dropped 20,000,000 gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam.
Why is this significant?
It goes to the lie of the Obama Administration that only Hitler, Hussein and Assad have used chemical weapons.
But... but.. but the US said it was a defoliant, they didn't know.
Not true.
Agent Orange or 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D as it was known by it's creator Monsato was reported to the US government in 1952 as being dangerous to people after it was accidentally contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin.
In his book, Agent Orange on Trial, Peter Schuck followed the trial involving Agent Orange and through the course of the trial it was learned that the US knew of the health risks (birth defects, sickness, burning of the skin and death) that Agent Orange causes.
In addition, t6he US also dropped Agent Blue on Vietnam, Cambodia and portions of Laos to destroy the rice fields as part of an effort to force the people from the land and into cities in hopes of depriving the Communist Armies of troops -- Killing Fields anyone?

So let's not pretend that the US is exempt from having used known toxic chemicals to kill people.

[Enthusiast]

1. A friend of mine eventually died from exposure

to agent orange in Vietnam.

I wonder about the long term effects it has had on the land and people in Vietnam. Oh, well. I guess anything was permissible in the quest to stomp out Communism.

Now that Communism is effectively eliminated I don't see where this country has improved at all. If anything, things are worse. WTF? I guess it's the moochers making things worse. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[No Elephants]

2. WMD-nuclear, biological and chemical. US is only nation to have used all 3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

I believe we supplied Hussein with chemical weapons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/history-lesson-when-the-united-states-looked-the-other-way-on-chemical-weapons/2013/09/04/0ec828d6-1549-11e3-961c-f22d3aaf19ab_blog.html

We are known to have used them in Vietnam and in the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Basra.

http://grassrootjournal.com/who-uses-chemical-weapons-the-united-states-thats-who/

I believe that I heard of an instance when Clinton used them, but it escapes me at the moment.

And that's what we know about.

From everything that I've read, the ones we use are even more horrifying than Sarin. However, while authors make that point, I think it's not a great one. Imagine a country that uses Sarin defending itself on the ground that the horror of Sarin is not as great as the horror of depleted uranium? *shudder*

Thing is, though, I've been listening very carefully. Mike Capuano, my rep before re-districting, we on local TV Sunday. He said "There's no doubt that that chemical weapons were used and I'm relativey convinced Assad was responsible."

Relatively?

He went on to say though, that he intends to vote against the resolution because he doesn't know what happens on the day after we bomb. (He voted against the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. I don't know if Capuano is on the correct side of every issue, but every time I look at the yeas and nays of a vote, he votes as I would have, FWIW,

Axelrod said Sunday there was "all kinds of evidence suggesting" Assad was responsible.

Suggesting?

Even Obama has qualified himself occasionally when discussing who was responsible.

I don't remember Obama's exact words right now, but I believe that I posted them somewhere here at the time.

It seems to me that the evidence of Sarin is indisputable in the minds of everyone I have heard speak, but the evidence of who was responsible is not indisputable.

I don't think bombing is the way we should go, even if we knew Assad were responsible. However, before we start killing more innocent Syrians, shouldn't we at least be sure beyond doubt that Assad was responsible?