U.S. starts landmark cleanup of Agent Orange

[Locutus]

DANANG, VIETNAM — The United States on Thursday began a landmark project to clean up a dangerous chemical left from the defoliant Agent Orange — 50 years after it was first sprayed by American planes on Vietnam’s jungles to destroy enemy cover.

Dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, will be removed from the site of a former U.S. airbase in Danang in central Vietnam. The effort is seen as a long-overdue step toward removing a thorn in relations between the former foes nearly four decades after the Vietnam War ended.

“We are both moving earth and taking the first steps to bury the legacies of our past,” U.S. Ambassador David Shear said during the groundbreaking ceremony near the area where a rusty barbed wire fence marks the site’s boundary. “I look forward to even more success to follow.”

The $43 million joint project with Vietnam is expected to be completed in four years on the 47-acre contaminated site, located near Danang’s commercial airport and an active Vietnamese military base

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U.S. starts landmark cleanup of Agent Orange nearly 40 years after Vietnam War

 

[SLM]

You just have to love government "in action" don't you? 40 years to clean up a dangerous toxic substance but they can whip out a permit for free dildos in NYC in under 24 hours.

 

[coldstream]

I'd call that a bit of tokenism, as Agent Orange contamination is spread over 10's of thousands of square miles in Laos, Cambodia, along the old Ho Chi Minh Trail and in contested regions of Vietnam.. where it's seeped into the ground aquifers and soil and will remain there for centuries

 

[L Gilbert]

1 mess being remedied, dozens of dozens to go.
I see MentalFloozy copied this topic and posted a new topic on it.

 

[CDNBear]

It's something tangible. Token or not.

I gave Fuzzy a greenie for his attempt, I thought he could use the positivity.