fuerthOctober 15, 2006 08:35 EST

When it's said that insurgents rally to a cause as a result of having lost home and family, my immediate reaction is, "No kidding?"

If a big plane from another country came and wiped out everything I had, I'd pledge the rest of my life toward avenging my loss, as well.

Why is the Bush administration so stupid that they can't see that, particularly in light of how recent history in Cambodia provides them with the empirical evidence?

This is information that needs a broad audience!

eSeptember 09, 2007 14:19 EST

In reply to the comment above, "Why is the Bush administration so stupid that they can't see [that bombing hurts chances of strategic victory over hearts and minds, i.e. the war itself]?"

You are operating under the assumption that the Bush Administration even cares. I would argue that after looking at the facts of who the people in the Bush Administration really are, I would look at them as completely naive megalomaniacs who really don't care about consequences of their actions. Doesn't that also describe the story of George Bush's whole irresponsible life as a son of privilege who spent the war AWOL coked up and drunk? Perhaps his evangelicalism sheds light on the fact that he doesn't really think too hard or question too much. And don't forget that to his political supporters dropping bombs and talking tough is a whole lot sexier than diplomacy and sensible policy, no matter the actual strategic outcome. Also, don't forget that war has been the historical impetus of our economic might and those thousands of bombs, etc. help funnel money to Bush's political supporters, and quite literally to his own family as well. Perhaps if Nixon (and many presidents before and since for that matter) was held accountable to his criminal operations we wouldn't be in this similar mess today? Just some thoughts.

holly tateJune 02, 2008 19:52 EST

im really glad that you are letting ppl be aware of what is going on in our world thank you and god bless

AnonymousDecember 22, 2010 11:56 EST

"What we learn most from history is that we never learn anything from history"

Recovering CatholicJanuary 03, 2011 15:40 EST

I recently re-read Hillary's book; "It Takes a Village."
In discussing it with a friend over the holidays, he was quick to make this tongue-in-cheek comment:

"It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a Viking to raze a village."

Just food for thought.

Anthony MawJanuary 16, 2011 22:04 EST

This conduct of the war in South East Asia was all about race: "Freedom Loving" White Christians men of European extraction have shown they are more than willing and even eagerness to kill as many "Yellow" Asians as they possibly in the name of mis-guided ideology. This coming from the great society that prides itself as being a "Bastion of Democracy" and "Defenders of the Free World"??? Anyone visiting Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam today will still see the legacy of reckless US policy towards Asian people. How does carpet bombing, napalming, zuni rockets, vulcan machine guns, and spraying Agent Orange onto rice crops of rural Cambodian and Laotian villages serve to defend fucking "American Freedom"? Retired proud White US Air Force men today are enjoying their VA pensions in their homes in the United States as the reward for burning to death whole Cambodian families?? I doubt the Americans would have engaged in a similarly vicious and indiscriminant campaign against their fellow European Whites. Who is killed and how they are killed are all predicated on race.

European WhiteFebruary 16, 2011 12:26 EST

Excuse me, Anthony Maw, but you have an example of Serbia bombing in the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 21th century!!! Which is a country inhabited by European white population as you call it.
Do not forget, the race or religion is easy to take for an excuse, but that is not the going to determine or stop the decisions of any killings or "war" actions... For example, the economic development of the country or a region might "justify" these actions more easily. The race will not limit or stop from committing a war crime any power and control hungry murderers that we ELECT on the elections

AnonymousDecember 12, 2011 00:16 EST

What does history teach us nothing. The French were in Indochina and they lost the war. Their final defeat took place in 1954 in Dien Bien Phu. The United States made the same mistake in Vietnam and result was the same. The Soviets invaded Afganistan in 1979 and had to retreat in 1989. Th United States lead coalition attacted Afganistan in 2001 and quite soon they will be pulling their troops out.

goosarMarch 22, 2012 10:53 EST

ofcourse, What U.S. has committed has never been previously done by any country. Nuclear pombing of Jaban that resulted the death of more than 150,000 loss of lives.. the vietnam war and the bombing of Campodia.

i am certain of that U.S.A. will pay the price of its actions!!!

good job. may god pless u.

LOMarch 22, 2012 10:53 EST

2,756,941 tons’ worth of bombs VS around 7 millions Cambodian at the time.

It is about half a ton of bomb for each Cambodian.

The worst is one of the guy responsible for this senseless bombing, Henry Kissinger, won the Nobel Peace Price in 1973.

What a cruel world!

Arrest the war criminalsMarch 25, 2012 19:52 EST

Six years after the first publication of this article, and the Americans are still killing civilians and supporting dictators in the name of "freedom."

Kissinger, Cheney, and Bush are still free men.

And Stephen Harper is buckling on his six-shooter, looking for a war to call his own.

Donald JamesonMarch 30, 2012 09:50 EST

As a Khmer language political officer in the US Embassy in Phnom Penh I also interviewed refugees from areas in Cambodia that had been subjected to US bombing. I heard almost the exact same stories about the earth shaking and explosions lighting up the sky, but with one major difference from what is reported in this article. No one mentioned B-52s, for the simple reason that Cambodian peasants had no knowledge that B-52s even existed. Beyond that they flew too high to be seen from the ground. The refugees I interviewed had no idea what had caused the explosions and trembling of the earth that they experienced. I am afraid that this critical part of the story is a complete fabrication and, as such, it undermined the whole point of the story. Terrible and inexcusable as it was, the bombing had very little effect on the propensity of Cambodian peasants to join the Khmer Rouge insurgents. Anyone who has even a slight knowledge of Cambodian peasants knows that they have virtually no concept of politics and have no awareness of Communism or any other political ideology. The only thing they know is the king, who is critical in maintaining harmony and stability in the realm, and so they support him. Thus what attracted many Cambodian peasants to the Khmer Rouge was the call by deposed Prince Norodom Sihanouk to join the Khmer, with whom he allied himself in revenge for being ousted by Defense Minister Lon Nol on March 18, 1970. These peasants thought they were fighting to restore the king not to install the Khmer Rouge in power or to avenge their suffering from bombing, The idea that American bombing created the Communists or turned them into murderous demons is a complete myth and an utter distortion of reality on the ground in Cambodia during and after the war.

Bobby DiasApril 30, 2012 11:51 EST

1. Kissenger was lying years later of having any involvement, as a form of attracting free-lance work. 2. It was not Cambodia citizens that were bombed- it was small groups from Vietnam that were fleeing from the combined major forces of the official government of South Vietnam, led by Thieu and the government of the never official North Vietnam, led by Tho. 3. Better for you to understand:
The bombing of Cambodia was done at the requests of 1. the government of Cambodia and the most powerful military person in Cambodia- Pol Pot 2. the government of South Vietnam and the military leader of South Vietnam Thieu 3. the unofficial and only government of North Vietnam and its military leader Tho 4. the government of Laos 5. The government of Tailand.
Separately these requests were made to me and I relayed them to President Richard Nixon. Some requests were after inquiries by me as to what they thought should be done by the forces that had escaped from Vietnam,North and South- these forces being those that were in opposition to the unification of Vietnam as started by the joining of the official military forces led by Thieu of the South and Tho of the North. I interject here that President Johnson had started me on visiting many people in southeast Asia when I was stationed on the USS Paul Revere during the ship's duty off the coast of Vietnam in 1967. The official and unofficial governments plus the military leaders of Pol Pot and Thieu and Tho. President Nixon inherited the situation of those small military groups in Vietnam fleeing to Cambodia. I sought and received what each entity wanted, which was to destroy the military forces unwilling to go along with the mainstream efforts in the unification and peace of Vietnam. Camped in jungles, these forces were raiding into populated areas of Cambodia and Thailand and Laos and Vietnam. Their numbers were very overestimated but they meant no peace, only war because of the jungle hiding them.
It was in 1968 that teams of surveyors and cultural experts sent by Mao were mapping for official boundaries of Vietnam and Laos and Thailand and Cambodia and Burma- the cultural people to keep like peoples together in the future offical maps which were being prepared by the United States at the instruction of President Johnson. Except for those bombed in eastern Cambodia there were no disputes in actions leading to the official boundaries.

humphrey hollinsMay 07, 2012 11:11 EST

Sorry donald,but you are wrong.
I would not really expect anything else from an employee of the US embassy.
i have probably spent more time in the country than you and believe me one becomes very poltically minded very fast when you are being bombarded by strangers.
Most commentators agree that the bombing both sent the people mad and drove them into the arms if the khmer rouge.
Your belittling of cambodian peasants shows that you have a terribly US perspective and no real understanding of how cambodians think.
I have recently seen the full size map of the bombing and the extent is horrifying.
Right over the eastern side of the country the US carpet bombed the roads,railways and rivers-exactly where most of the country people live.
Even around phnom penh in kandal province the amount of bombing was extraordinary,I amk very familiar with kandal and it has always been heavily populated.