What Do You Do if the Weapons Don’t Work?

What Do You Do if the Weapons Don’t Work? Well, if you’re the United States in the desperation of Vietnam, you go to as many random forms of destruction as you can think of. A nice new book—War and Nature, by Jurgen Brauer (2009, Altamira Press, New York) covers this topic nicely. Actually, the book’s title is a little grandiose. Brauer addresses Vietnam and the Persian Gulf in detail, and pays some attention to Rwanda, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. But not much else. Oh well. I suppose I’ll just have to write that one!


Anyway. Brauer catalogs U.S. non-weaponry: massive habitat bulldozing (same objective as herbicides), attempts to manipulate weather (!) (mostly to increase precipitation along the western border and the Ho Chi Minh trail—this, of course, in a region where the monsoon is absolutely massive…), deliberate flooding by breaching dams and field berms, and antipersonnel gas. For the latter, Brauer reports huge DOD purchases of gas, and does report a lack of evidence or record of combat application. The simple fact of the purchase, though, is pretty damned disturbing. 


Brauer also reports that neither the combat effectiveness nor environmental consequences of any of this have been studied in any detail. 


Duh!


New material up around the horn. I’ve been sick, I apologize for being a day late with this stuff. Check http://endoftheworldpartdeux.blogspot.com/ for the cancer diary, http://docviper.livejournal.com/ for photos and a little ecology, http://theresaturtleinmysoup.blogspot.com/ for the best in pop culture. And thanks again for stoppin’ by—every time you guys read this stuff, I feel a little more life come back to my battered frame!