Category Archives: War and peace

A heinous war crime is about to be committed by a country that purports to be the champion of democracy and human rights. Yes, the United States is preparing to send cluster bombs to the Ukraine for use in the war against Russia. Do you know the kinds of injuries these weapons cause, that they often fail to explode until much later when innocent civilians happen to accidentally set them off, and that these weapons have been banned by the Geneva Convention signed by 123 countries, but NOT by the United States.

Reading the story below from my friend and long-time correspondent Mike Boddington made me weep. It is a graphic description of the many tragedies that civilians suffer from unexploded weapons like the cluster bombs that President Biden now wants to send to Ukraine. Mike, who is British, made it his mission many years ago to go to Southeast Asia to do what he could to help people who have been maimed by unexploded ordinance (UXOs) that was scattered throughout that region by the US and during the Vietnam War.

I was introduced to Mike by a mutual friend, and in 2009 I visited him at his home in Vientiane, Laos where, in 1995, Mike had set up the office of COPE (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise), the NGO that he founded to warn people of the danger and to provide aid to the estimated 50,000 victims of encounters with UXOs, particularly those who have lost limbs. One of COPEs primary programs is providing prosthetic arms and legs.   

Mike has given me permission to publish his story here; we, in turn, invite and encourage you to distribute it widely in hopes of averting many more such tragedies. –THG

Laos Leaves June-July 2023: Issue 6.5 by Mike Boddington

This is an interim edition:  a bonus, if you will.  It is brought about as a result of hearing the news that the USA is to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, in order to continue the support of NATO and the west for that country in its battle against Russia.  If this happens it will be the most evil and heinous crime.  It will be the act of people who have no care or concern for the lives and welfare of others.  By way of response, I am reproducing here and article that I wrote in 2021 entitled ‘An Experience in Your Life’ and which has had limited circulation, but has not aired in this medium.  It offers a scenario of a regular, everyday person in SE Asia encountering an unexploded device – here referred to as a cluster sub-munition or bombie. 

I came to Laos by way of Cambodia. Getting involved in the rehabilitation of unexploded ordnance (UXO) survivors in that country was harrowing – as it has proved in any country where I have met with the victims of those devices personally. What follows is from my experience in post-conflict countries – not in countries that are involved in active warfare.  There has been war.  It is over.  Now we are in conflict-recovery mode.  But the wounding and killing goes on – not amongst the combatants, the armed forces, but almost entirely amongst the civilian population.  Not just the civilian population but very often the civilian population that was not even born at the time that the conflict was active.  Those people had lost their limbs as a result of an encounter with an unexploded device of some sort.  Here is a scenario for you, dear reader.  This is about you – your experience.