On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 18:00:49 -0600, "S. Sampson"
wrote:

"Ed Rasimus" wrote

By that criteria, I'll still say little or no "carpet bombing" in SEA.

If you limit it to iron. The most common carpet bombing in Vietnam
was the defoliant chemicals.

Maybe there's a more correct term, as "bombing" seems to signify
explosives, rather than biological weapons.

It is a giant leap of language to translate defoliants into
"biological weapons"--In fact a slightly (but only slightly) lesser
assault on language would be to label defoliants as "chemical
weapons".

But, the essential assault is the implication that an herbicide is
somehow homicidal. When you kill the dandelions in your lawn with a
broadcast herbicide, are you somehow guilty of a version of genocide.

I certainly don't want to get into the debate about long term health
impacts of excessive exposure to Agent Orange, but I think we can all
agree that immediate physiological impact on humans (or even
livestock) from Agent Orange exposure was non-existant.

And, I don't think application of a "weapon" that doesn't have an
effect on the enemy for more than twenty years is tactically sound.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8