Speaking of General William T. Sherman and his march to the sea, you may need to go back and read up on your military history, Tim. General Sherman used the destruction of the countryside and the food crops as an active weapon in his arsenal. Soldiers dating back to the middle ages would salt crop lands to render them infertile. Destruction of the means of livelihood, starving out the countryside, has always been a weapon in the arsenal of armies and the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam was no exception.
Agent Orange wasn't something that just happened to be convenient to make the enemy easier to see. It was a weapon of war, to drive the populace from the countryside, to starve them out, to render them ill and hungry and desperate. Maybe, tactically, it was considered worth it. I'm not debating that point. But don't try and downplay what was happening by saying "oh, it was just a defoliant" like you were spraying some weeds in your driveway with Roundup. It was a weapon. It was an act of war. I just don't feel that pretending otherwise is being intellectually honest. Cheers, Judah On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 10:49 PM, LRS Scout <[email protected]> wrote: > > "War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is, the > sooner it will be over. -General William T. Sherman > > I have several things I'm service connected for. Bone/joint stuff. My > left foot breaks all the time, skin issues, hearing loss, tinnitus, PTSD. > Like Bruce I was also given experimental and under-tested drugs like those > for malaria and and various vaccines, at least one of which the congress > ended up banning. I think my skin problems come from a combination of > exposure to burn pits and various chemicals and the environment of the > various countries I've been deployed to. > > Look, the intention of Agent orange was not to directly kill or wound the > enemy. That's what a weapon is, something which I can shoot or stab you in > the face. comparing this to mustard gas is rediculous, have you ever seen > what that does? Is it horrible that it turned out this way, sure. However > this was no more a chemical warfare situation than all the cases of > asbestos exposure, or that to uranium like Bruce mentioned, something that > I'm sure we've both been exposed to n large amounts (yes I played mech > infantry for a while, hated it but I did it.)/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:353598 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
