U.S.-Made Cluster Bomb Use by Saudis in Yemen

Correct, and the Saudis are buying large amounts of weapons, etc. from the US.

From 211-2015, the Saudis increased Arms purchases by 275%...Qatar a bit more.

The US lead the sellers' list at 33%, and Russia second.

Mass quantities of related info available here:
http://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers

So Russia always tells the truth?!?

Get real Jean, we know you were involved in at least one thread on Propaganda here, and that you know better.

It's true the MSM lies, the US lies, and Russia lies, and they all spew Propaganda daily, so why make statements like your first one above???

Great post, and it will take decades to sweep the entire country.

He SHOULD'VE known this.

 

The US also spends the most on R&D for more effective, (deadlier) weapons.

Not probably, DID buy them from the US...plz see my previous post.

It's true, the Saudis can do as they please w/ their weapons regardless of who they purchased them from, just like every other country.

 

I agree, for the most part.

Many ppl still think the Ho Chi Min Trail was just one road/path...but it was a huge network of roads etc. Carpet Bombing was proved to be ineffective, again! Gen LeMay, "We'll bomb 'em back to the stone-age." (You cannot bomb back that which has never left.) US Politicians underestimated the Vietnamese ppl's will, failed to listen to its own Military Advisers...and made too many other mistakes to list here.

The Vietnamese fought to win, and were in it for as long as it took. US Politicians didn't have the full support of its people from the beginning, and support waned as time went on (all this right out of Sun Tzu.)

HCM told the French, "You may kill 10 of my men for every one of yours we kill...but even at those odds, you will lose, and we will win."

 

Yes, but total war to win required carpet bombing of Saigon and Haiphong not jungle trails that could easily be rebuilt. We bombed Berlin, we bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities to dust, destroyed oil fields, bombed train lines, and the enemy's ability to wage war during WWII. Japanese too were willing to die to the last man to achieve their objectives. We obliged their desire and killed them. Kill them until they stop or they don't exist anymore. Failure to do that caused the war to go on longer than needed with many more casualties on both sides than necessary.

I hold the "peace" protesters in everlasting contempt because their activities demoralized our troops, encouraged the enemy and made cowards of our politicians. Some of my college classmates and fellow soldiers died or were horribly injured as a result and I will never forgive them.

 

You did 'go big' and, aside from nukes, you threw everything in your arsenal at the Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodians for year after year. You still managed to lose spectacularly. This 'our hands were tied' excuse is getting stale.

 

I'm 63 and recall the outrage over the massacre very well. And so, incidentally, do several of his platoon who were brave enough to testify at his trial. Calley was a murderous bastard. I suggest most Americans who supported Calley didn't know the truth. And it is My Lai, not "My Lie". That he got a presidential pardon was a travesty. We hanged Nazi war criminals for less.

 

The time I heard from Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and at the current rate of clean up, 180 years.

 

A little know fact. My Lai took all the headlines because the conflict in Vietnam was totally on the radar and because of its barbarity. The greatest death toll of civilians in a single engagement was Tham Piew Cave in northern Laos, were a single rocket fired from a USAF plane entered a cave where villagers were escaping the bombing, taking out nearly 400 civilians in seconds.

 

This happens on a monthly basis in Laos.

 

You do realise South Vietnam was your ally or is your geography a bit scue if?

 

Laos is the most bombed nation on the planet. More bombs rained down on Laos than all the Allies dropped on Germany and Japan combined. Laos was also a neutral country.

 

Just several of the platoon were outraged ?

Didn't know the truth ? Read the freaking orders that Lt. Callie carried out. In hindsight, they were unlawful orders.

Facts are he carried out the orders he was given by higher ups.

You ever wonder why the RVN government refused to prosecute Lt. Callie for murder ? If it were ARVAN troops they would have done the same thing.

Do you know why most Americans were against Lt. Callie being court martialed ? Because back in 1970, most of the adult population were part of the "Greatest Generation" where 80% of the males of that generation served during WW ll.

My Lie was VC.

 

Maybe Laos should cozy up to the USA and we might send our military EOD over to Laos and clean up the mess ?

Who's unexploded munitions are they having problems with in Laos ? If we are dealing with mines, Americans always make note where every mine is buried on a map. SOP for any real competent military.

It's just not in Laos, you have to be really careful when you are playing out in the Mojave Desert in California. It's where Patton trained an entire army during WW ll.


Example:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ricesolar/compliance/submittals/UXOITRP_092311.pdf

 

Sorry you aren't informed as well as you think you are.

 

And the problem is we were bombing Laos instead of North Vietnam. Political hacks like McNamera were idiots.

 

That was not cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are dropped from aircraft.

This video shows what cluster bombs look like at 2:00 into the video =

[video=youtube;J_wXTuLAFgk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_wXTuLAFgk[/video]

 

America undertook the largest aerial bombing campaign the world had seen in Laos, a neutral country by the way. Most of the ordinance were BLU 26 cluster bombs which are highly unreliable. 10-30% failed to detonate so today there are anywhere between 30 million and 80 million UXOs strewn around the Lao countryside.

Nowadays Laos has a pretty good relationship with the west including America. Laos needs foreign aid and investment just to survive. The heavy lifters (funds donated) when it comes to UXO clearance are Japan, Scandinavian countries, Australia (Australia by the way has the longest continuous diplomatic dialog with Laos that any western country). America does also donate. America spent more money daily bombing Laos than it does yearly cleaning up the mess it left. To put it into perspective, from 1964-1973 there was one bombing sortie every eight minutes 24/7. Over 2 million tons of bombs on a population of round 4 million, on a country of less than 250,000 sq kiliometres. That's a lot of bombs. Around of 20% of the population either killed, maimed or displaced.

Cluster munitions and larger bombs dropped from aircraft so there's no real record of where they fell especially those that didn't detonate. The US military also jettisoned bombs on return flights from North Vietnam back to USAF bases in Thailand over Laos is they failed to get their targets. Pilots refused to land with a full payload.

 

You were bombing the north of Laos three months before the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

 

The US should be playing NO part in this. I am embarrassed for my country.

 

You contest that the USA created smart bombs?

 

Not mad at deadlier weapons.

And sure they bought them from the US, but I doubt they bought them from the US Dept of Defense. Even if they did, still not mad.

 

Actually it's the CBU-24 the BLU-26 is the submunition that goes bang.

The way I look at it. Vietnam should clean up the mess. If Vietnam would have respected Laos sovereignty and hadn't trespassed across Laos there would have been no reason to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Did North Vietnam ever pulled a building permit with Laos to builds their trails ? I don't think so.

 

Decisions made again by our dumbass politicians, not by the people who had an idea of what needed to be done.

 

That was Eisenhower's strategy, make a stand in Laos to stop communist expansion in Southeast Asia not at the 17th parallel in Vietnam that JFK chose to do.

The 17th parallel (DMZ) could be defended. But if you don't control Laos, Charly would hit you from your west flank by building roads from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia and cross into South Vietnam from the west. And that's exactly what they did.

Eisenhower warned JFK but JFK thought he was a better general than Eisenhower.

 

America did more than just bomb the Ho Chi Minh trails. The first bombs fell on Xieng Khouang province, in the north three months before the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Xieng Khouang province remains today the most extensively bombed area on the planet. Bokeo province (the farthest province away from the Ho Chi Minh trails) on the Thai/Burmese border was also extensively bombed.

It all started when America got involved in a sh!tty little civil war in a tiny country. It all escalated from there. To be fair though, North Vietnam were arming the Pathet Lao just as America was arming South Vietnam.

These little bastards are scattered all over Laos.



True story. A friend who worked for an NGO dealing with the rehabilitation of UXO accident victims returned from holidays to find a cardboard box with two BLU 26 bomblets and a 60mm motor shell under her desk, all still alive. She got straight on the phone to UXO Lao which disposed of them.