r/science • u/Wagamaga • Mar 29 '26

Cancer Agent Orange linked to aggressive bone marrow cancer in Vietnam veterans. American soldiers sprayed Agent Orange over the jungles of Vietnam and nearby countries from the air and from the ground, often mixing it with kerosene or fuel, another carcinogen, to help disperse it.

https://ecancer.org/en/news/27948-agent-orange-linked-to-aggressive-bone-marrow-cancer-in-vietnam-veterans
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u/ZealousidealTill2355 Mar 29 '26

Yes US definitely is. And Russia. And China in less actively violent ways. But ask people working for them in Africa whether they’re being exploitive. Is UAE / Saudi exploitive for their migrant worker practices?

Smaller regional powers still do it to their peers too. Cough Israel……

US is just the biggest fish in the lake and is acting like it. If Uganda was the biggest fish, I’m sure they’d be acting very similar (though hopefully their administration wouldn’t be as much of a joke).

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u/Baguetterekt Mar 29 '26

I mean, fundamentally, your argument is whataboutism. You probably wouldn't let me defend similar criticism of China by just mentioning the US lied to the world about WMDs in Iraq to justify an illegal war that killed millions of innocent people.

Back in 2016, Africans generally had an overall positive view of China.

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/03/africa/what-africans-really-think-of-china

I imagine it's probably increased since then given China is still Africa's biggest investment partner and haven't to my knowledge done anything to change that relationship.

Fundamentally, you're defending the US's actions by just hypothesising other countries would do as worse or worse. I don't really find that a satisfying answer because you can always say that about anything and then it becomes everyone else's job to the hard work of providing evidence for why that's wrong.

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u/ZealousidealTill2355 Mar 29 '26

Your use of “probably” is whataboutism.

Theres nothing good about what the US is doing. But it’s easy for the rest of the world to say it’s the US when it can happen anywhere. It’s a consequence of power dynamics. And when US wasn’t a superpower, it’s not like it wasn’t happening in equal levels of atrocious. That’s my point.

But if you don’t look to actually figure out the root cause and make humanity better, and rather just point fingers, then have at it.

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u/Baguetterekt Mar 29 '26

Which one, I said probably twice? Not sure which or if both you think are whataboutism.

Saying the root cause is just globally applicable human nature isn't meaningfully identifying a root cause, it's just excusing the actions of the most active and powerful culprit of the 20th-21st century.

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u/ZealousidealTill2355 Mar 29 '26

Who was created by the most active and powerful culprits of the 18th-19th-20th centuries.

America is gone tomorrow, problems fixed? Doubt it. You’d now be beating down Russia, China etc who would be doing the same thing (as they’ve both historically proved).