History Live

VIENTIANE, Laos — This capital city, with its wide, tree-lined French colonial boulevards and old-fashioned tuk-tuk three-wheeled taxis, takes its turn in the international spotlight Monday, as Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to travel here.

  USA Today

Gee, you think he'll make an apology?

Watch the US Drop 2.5 Million Tons of Bombs on Laos from 1964 to 1973
by @jerryredfernhttps://t.co/yKIbsXf9i0 pic.twitter.com/Qx1W5EUpOY

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) September 5, 2016

The White House said unexploded ordnance will be a focus of Obama's visit, and it has signaled a stronger financial commitment to help clear deadly bombs that litter large swaths of the countryside.

[...]

An estimated 80 million of the baseball-sized cluster bombs —nearly a third of those dropped — failed to detonate. Less than 1% have been cleared and more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured since the bombing ceased.

[...]

Obama plans to push for closer economic ties with Laos and Southeast Asia, and raise human rights abuses in the one-party communist state, which suppresses freedom of expression and the media.

No thanks to the US, there are still people living there to be suppressed.

Cluster bombs - the gift that keeps on giving.

During the Obama administration, the U.S. has dramatically increased funding for bomb clearance, from about $2.5 million a decade ago to $19.5 for 2017. Thanks to the increased funds and new survey methods to uncover ordnance, the number of annual casualties has dropped significantly, from 310 in 2008 to just 42 in 2015.

I'm guessing we could probably do better.

"Given this president's commitment to reach out to countries with whom we've had complicated histories, we see this as a real opportunity to ...build a real working partnership that can benefit both of our peoples," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said ahead of the trip.

"Complicated histories." Nice euphemism. Another "opportunity" for America.

"It is clear that a Chinese presence will continue to be felt in Laos and across Southeast Asia," he said. "It is critical that U.S. engagement also continue in the region if a rules-based international order and U.S. economic leadership are to be sustained."