Scott interviews Shuja Paul about his forthcoming documentary, Waiting to Explode: Forgotten Bombs of a Secret War Continue to Kill. Paul’s film tells the little-known story of the thousands of undetonated cluster bombs dropped by the U.S. during the Vietnam War, which continue to plague the people of Laos to this day. Although Laos didn’t receive the brunt of the bombing during the war, Paul says that that country has suffered more than anyone in the decades since, largely because it has remained an impoverished country of subsistence farmers, who lack the technological, medical and financial resources that some of their neighbors have. Laos has also received far less attention in the intervening years, leaving their people to suffer in obscurity. Paul hopes that by telling a few of the tragic stories from the more than 20,000 Laotians who have been killed by these bombs, he can help to bring international attention to this deadly humanitarian crisis.
Discussed on the show:
- “Fred Branfman, Who Exposed Bombing of Laos, Dies at 72” (The New York Times)
- “Vietnam: American Holocaust” (IMDb)
Shuja Paul is an actor, writer and director, currently working on the documentary Waiting to Explode: Forgotten Bombs of a Secret War Continue to Kill.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org