Vietnamese seeing Orange

One of the great shames of the American army is their use of Agent Orange in the War in Vietnam. U.S. aircraft dropped more than 80 million litres of the chemical on the Southeast Asian country from 1962 to 1971, trying to ruin the crops and to kill the foliage that the Communist forces were using as cover. It didn't work so well. Except for killing civillians and their unborn children. That's because Agent Orange contains dioxin, a highly toxic chemical that has been linked to cancer, diabetes, birth defects, organ dysfunctions and other health problems. So it's with pretty reasonable cause that those affected by the chemical have recently tried to sue the US military for damages. I certainly can't blame them, even though I wouldnt hold out much hope.

Well, the American judge ruled recently, perhaps preditably siding with the military. Now, I would expect the reasoning to be the whole "in times of war, rules go out the window, national security, blah blah blah" routine. But not so. Instead, "the judge ruled that the plaintiffs couldn't prove the herbicide caused their illnesses, noting that there hadn't been sufficient research to draw the link." Again, fair enough I suppose. So long as you don't take this into account: thousands of U.S. war veterans receive disability benefits related to Agent Orange. So the military has in effect already admitted the harm caused by this chemical, when it comes to their own men, but conveniently forgets this point when dealing with Vietnameese. Classy move guys.