Back in August we told you about the Marshall Islands where the US tested 67 nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 1950s. The concrete dome over the nuclear waste dump on the island of Runit is already deteriorating despite it only being 30 years old and needing to last 24,000 due to the half-life of the plutonium underneath.

Unfortunately, the $400 million the US paid the islands between 1964 and 2004 was deemed ‘in full and final settlement of all past and future claims deriving from the nuclear tests.’ The dome continues to crumble and the islanders continue to die of radiation-related cancers.

Last week the US government again refused further compensation, repeating that it had discharged its responsibilities:

More than 22 million dollars remains unpaid for personal injury awards and about two billion dollars is outstanding for land damage awards made by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal [set up by the two governments to compensate those displaced or suffering health problems due to the tests.]

The islands’ President Litokwa Tomeing suggested diverting other US aid to help but this has been rejected. ‘The purpose you suggest falls outside of the uses of sector grant funds and would not be an acceptable proposal’ a letter from the US Interior Office. Or, in other words, easing people’s suffering is not considered an ‘acceptable’ use of the US’s money in this case. Who writes like that when people dying?

But just look at those numbers. Twenty-two million. Two billion. President Tomeing wants a mere $1.2 million a year diverted from US aid to the support of the victims of the US nuclear weapons testing problem. Those are small prices to pay for a little compassion you would have thought.

Then think of the sums being thrown at failing banks and investors. George Bush’s Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 alone gave $700 billion to bail out the banks. And unlike the bankers, the Marshall Islanders didn’t bring it all on themselves. Quite the opposite.

The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have got it all wrong. They’ve only got themselves to blame, when you think about it. They should have bought themselves suits, got high-powered city jobs and then caused an economic collapse. The Bush Administration would now be throwing cash at them, and far more than they need.