Cambodia is asked to pay a $500 million "war debt" 50 years after the U.S. killed 500,000 Cambodians. Another satisfied customer serviced
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Wage slavery is very chic in the western world, but imagine if you were a Cambodian who was forced to "pay back" the U.S. for bombing your country and killing 500,000 of your own people nearly fifty years ago.
If you are actually Cambodian, you don't have to "imagine" anything — because this is exactly what the United States is demanding right now as we type these words.
Via the Sydney Morning Herald:
Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tonnes of explosives on Cambodia's countryside Washington wants the country to repay a $US500 million ($662 million) war debt.
The demand has prompted expressions of indignation and outrage from Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Over 200 nights in 1973 alone, 257,456 tons of explosives fell in secret carpet-bombing sweeps – half as many as were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.
[...]
According to one genocide researcher, up to 500,000 Cambodians were killed, many of them children.
Sure, 500,000 dead Cambodian children sounds pretty bad, but so does not paying down your debts. This is the actual position taken by America's actual ambassador to Cambodia, some asshole named William Heidt:
William Heidt, the US's ambassador in Phnom Penh, said Cambodia's failure to pay back the debt puts it in league with Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
"To me, Cambodia does not look like a country that should be in arrears…buildings coming up all over the city, foreign investment coming in, government revenue is rapidly rising," Mr Heidt was quoted as saying by the Cambodia Daily.
We would like you to stop whatever you're doing and click this link and confirm that the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia actually said this. You did not eat the "brown acid". This is real life.
According a former Reuters bureau chief in Ho Chi Minh City quoted in this insane article, "Cambodia does not owe a brass farthing to the US for help in destroying its people, its wild animals, its rice fields and forest cover".
And American Elizabeth Becker, one of the few correspondents who witnessed the Khmer Rouge's genocide, has also written that the U.S. "owes Cambodia more in war debts that can be repaid in cash."
Spoken like a true commie.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Anyone is free to republish, copy, and redistribute the text in this content (but not the images or videos) in any medium or format, with the right to remix, transform, and build upon it, even commercially, as long as they provide a backlink and credit to Russia Insider. It is not necessary to notify Russia Insider. Licensed Creative Commons
Our commenting rules: You can say pretty much anything except the F word. If you are abusive, obscene, or a paid troll, we will ban you. Full statement from the Editor, Charles Bausman.