When War Doesn't End

There are several disturbing lessons in "Bombies," the forthcoming PBS documentary on cluster bombs in the U.S's covert war in Laos. The first is that the wounds of war don't end with peace treaties in the modern era; they continue in the form of undetonated bombs that cover the former killing fields of the world. In Laos, they have killed 12,000 civilians in the past three decades.

The second is that military technology which initially appears "smart" often proves to be abysmally stupid. Cluster bombs, developed during the Vietnam War and hailed for their ability to effectively disperse submunitions (surface-delivered "grenades" or air-delivered "bomblets"), may indeed increase the radius of destruction. But they also have a high failure rate, with hideous post-war repercussions. Twenty to 30 percent of the 90 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973 failed to explode on impact and now lie dormant, waiting for a child's hand or a farmer's hoe to set them off. The Laotian moniker for these tennis ball-sized destroyers -- "bombies" -- may sound sweet to the American ear, but the weapons are nothing if not proof of man's capacity to do evil.

"Bombies may be the preeminent symbol of humans inhumanity to other humans," says Fred Branfman, a former U.S. government worker in Laos-turned-political activist who appears in Jack Silberman's documentary. "They were designed to destroy not tanks or trucks but to kill people ... and largely civilians."

War is cruel. Untimely death is tragic. When enemy forces face each other on the battlefield or in the skies above, it is difficult to determine which actions are just or lawful. But in the case of the U.S.'s "secret" war in the mist-shrouded mountains and jungles of Laos -- a neutral country according to the U.S.-signed 1962 Geneva Accords -- it is unquestionable that America waged a highly murderous and mostly ineffectual military campaign.

During the nine years that the U.S. attempted to staunch the flow of North Vietnamese people and supplies moving along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and rid the countryside of Communists, American planes dropped more than 500,000 loads of bombs -- the equivalent of a B-52 planeload of bombs every eight minutes. More bombs descended on Laos than on Germany and Japan combined during World War II, making it the most bombed country in history. At least 80 percent of those killed were civilian farmers and villagers. And the U.S. government did this illegally and secretly.

"Everyone talked about Vietnam. Cambodia came under the spotlight. But Laos, it was like it never existed," says Rae McGrath, a bomb demolition expert with the British Army, who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize and serves as a key talking head in "Bombies."

"I never saw what the target was. Most of the bombs were just a dump," says Lee Thorn, a former Navy operative who loaded cluster bombs on U.S. planes destined for missions over Laos and, in the film, returns to Laos to deliver medical supplies.

"Bombies" is not soft entertainment. It shows interviews with angry, impoverished Laotian villagers. It follows a seemingly endless trail of brightly-colored unexploded bombs -- a kind of perverse Easter egg hunt -- in bamboo trees, school playgrounds, rice paddies, under houses, everywhere. The film makes clear that ridding Laos of cluster bombs is a Sisyphean task. Even with the help of the Mennonites, who have been working to clear bombs since 1975, and agencies like McGrath's Mines Advisory Group, which helps remove more than 100,000 unexploded ordnances every year, Laos will never be a free of cluster bombs.

One of the most remarkable images in the documentary is of school children, sitting in rows of little wooden chairs, obediently singing the "bombie song," which has lyrics like "Do not touch them. They are not toys." Of the 500 Laotians killed or maimed each year, 43 percent of those who die and 44 percent of those maimed are children. Another unforgettable image is of villagers eating from pots and using spoons made from scraps of bombies, which are the main source of metal in Laos.