Israeli Bomblets Plague Lebanon. -NY Times

[Tom Joad]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06cluster.html?hp&ex=1160193600&en=7e4e9f554d5fd023&ei=5094&partner=homepage

comment: I wish this headline were more truthful, and said U.S. bomblets plague Lebanon, since these are weapons that were rushed to Israel , at the behest of AIPAC & its allies. It was used to terrorize the people of Lebanon into giving into Israeli demands and then to punish them for not being compliant enough (most were dropped when it was clear a cease-fire will take effect before Israel had met its stated goals). That Israel dropped them just hours before the cease-fire was to take effect makes it even more reprehensible. It was, as described, a monstorous and insane act .

I think what should be emphasized here is not only the arms and legs of children that will be lost by these bomblets, but the fact that safety requires months and months of painstaking work in cleaning these US weapons so as to avoid injury. That means much delay in rebuilding, which means suffering that will be little noticed by much of the world, but very much remembered by the people of Lebanon. Before this attack, relations between the US and Lebanon were improving. I think that has been sent back a few decades. Thank you Olmert. Thank you Bush.

Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them.


United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region. They are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble and littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools.

As of Sept. 28, officials here said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people — and killed 18 others.
<snip>
She said a large percentage of the unexploded bomblets were made in America, while some were produced in Israel. Each one has a white tail dangling off the back, like the tail of a kite. As they fall to the ground, the tail spins and unscrews the firing pin.

When the device hits, the front end fires a huge slug while the casing blasts apart into a spray of deadly metal fragments. When they fail to detonate they cling to the ground, and with their white tails look deceptively like toys, so children are often those who are injured.

More at link above. Demand the end of exporting Cluster Bombs. Anywhere.

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. I've often wondered if a percentage of them are engineered to

NOT detonate on contact. The effect is the same as the terrorist who plants two bombs, one set to detonate while people are cleaning up after the first.

[tocqueville]

9. it's probably single-fused munitions ("non-Clinton compliant")

On July 24, as yet another sign of its looming failure in Lebanon, Israel deployed the first of thousands of cluster munitions against what it called "Hezbollah emplacements" in southern Lebanon. Cluster munitions are an effective, if vicious, combat tool and those nations that use them, including every single member of NATO (as well as Russia and China), have consistently refused to enter an international agreement banning their use.

The most responsible nation-states that use them, however, "double fuse" their munitions to cut down on the failure rate of the "bomblets" after they have been deployed. During the administration of US president Bill Clinton, defense secretary William Cohen agreed to the double-fusing of US cluster munitions and a phase-out of the "high dud rate" munitions in the US stockpile, which was intended to cut the failure rate of these munitions from 14% (some estimates are higher) to less than 3% (though some estimates are lower).

While investigations into Israel's use of these munitions is not yet complete, it now appears that the IDF deployed single-fused munitions. Recent reports in the Israeli press indicate that artillery officers carpeted dozens of Lebanese villages with the bomblets - as close to the definition of the "indiscriminate" use of firepower as one can get.

The Israeli munitions may well have been purchased from aging US stockpiles that were not double-fused, making the United States complicit in this indiscriminate targeting. Such a conclusion seems to fit with the time-line of the resupply of munitions to Israel on July 22. The IDF may well have been able to offload these munitions and deploy them quickly enough to have created the cluster-munitions crisis in Lebanon that plagues that nation still - and that started on July 24.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ13Ak01.html

[redqueen]

2. Absolutely barbaric...

the fact that these are still being used is a testament to how evil and selfish far too many people really are.

[McKenzie]

3. Monstrous? Absolutely. Insane? Not so sure...

Something that has major consequences for the future of the ME is unlikely to have happened out of insanity. It's more likely that there are carefully thought through military reasons for doing this; reasons we don't fully understand at present. My guess is that the cluster bombing fits into a wider strategy.

Whatever the reasons it is undoubtedly monstrous though.

[Tom Joad]

4. Strange fruit on the Olive trees. --- See the NY Times video that

accompanies this article.

US Cluster bombs were even found hanging in the Olive trees

Southern trees bear strange fruit.
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.---Billie Holliday

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/billie+holiday/strange+fruit_20017859.html

[malaise]

8. Profound comment

One of my favourite songs. They are war criminals.

[furman]

5. Human Rights Watch criticizes Hezbollah for using ball bearings in rockets

In the interest of preserving some sense of balance around here:

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/lebano13760.htm

Lebanon: Hezbollah Rocket Attacks on Haifa Designed to Kill Civilians
Anti-personnel Ball Bearings Meant to Harm “Soft” Targets

(New York, July 18, 2006) – Hezbollah's attacks in Israel on Sunday and Monday were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.

In addition, the warheads used suggest a desire to maximize harm to civilians. Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm.

<snip>

“Attacking civilian areas indiscriminately is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Hezbollah’s use of warheads that have limited military use and cause grievous suffering to the victims only makes the crime worse.”

more at http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/lebano13760.htm

---------------------

I have also read that sometimes terrorist rockets and suicide bombs were laced with pesticide or rat poison in order to inflict maximum damage. The poison causes intense bleeding.

Demand that UNIFIL enfore UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701 calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

[Englander]

7. Are yer lost?

:shrug:

[tocqueville]

10. how wrong this is, the scale isn't comparable

"some" against millions

besides the poison story is very strange too. Pesticides and rat poison are organic products and would burn in the explosion. It's possible that attempts have been made, but it's probably not very efficient.

[Lithos]

11. Intent is intent

The scale to which it is practiced is sometimes more a function of economics than desire.

L-

[tocqueville]

12. you are absolutely right

I wonder with what intent Lebanon was covered with a militarily useless (and internationally condemned) weapon 72 hours before a negotiated cease fire. Maybe it was a nice Israeli attempt to help the Lebanese get rid of mosquitoes ?

[IntiRaymi]

13. Of course, couldn't agree more.

Wealthy Israel waged blitzkrieg on Lebanon.
Why?
-Because they wanted to.

[Tom Joad]

6. See this good article from Bruce Taub. U.S. responsibilty

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14562

Textron Corp in Wilmington, MA is a leading manufacturer of cluster bombs.

Maybe they can start building soemthing that will be of value. We need peace conversion projects all across America. Jobs for peace, not for war.

[Scurrilous]

14. Israel opted for cheaper, unsafe cluster bombs in Lebanon war

<snip>

"During the second Lebanon war, Israel made use of American-made cluster bombs that left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets, even though Israel Military Industries produces cluster bombs that leave nearly no unexploded munitions. The main reason for the use of the U.S.-made weapons: Israel uses military aid funds to purchase cluster bombs from the U.S., and in order to buy IMI-made bombs, the Israel Defense Forces would have to dip into its own budget."

<snip>

"Soldiers in the artillery corps told Haaretz that nearly all the cluster munitions fired into Lebanon were American-made. The officially acknowledged ratio of duds is 15 percent, but the U.S. Army acknowledged during the war in Iraq the ratio of duds was closer to 30 percent. The IDF also makes use of older versions of the U.S.-made cluster bombs, whose ratio of duds is even higher.

In the 1990s, following injuries to Israeli soldiers by unexploded clusters, a decision was made to develop better munitions at IMI. According to globalsecurity.org, the rate of duds in cluster bomblets made by IMI ranges from 1 percent to 2 percent. In figures, this translates into one dud out of every 500 IMI-made bomblets, compared to one out of every three in the American-made ones. To date IMI has manufactured some 60 million such bomblets, designated M85, and has exported them to many armies throughout the world. According to IMI "the unique IMI Self-Destruct M85 bomblet ensures that no hazardous duds are encountered by advancing friendly forces. The IMI safety mechanism prevents inadvertent arming of duds by manual means. This requirement is not met by any other bomblet worldwide."

According to globalsecurity.org, the cost of each bomblet stands at $10, but defense sources say that even though IMI has been producing this munition for the past eight years, and exports it throughout the world, the IDF does not purchase them. "Israel opts to purchase American bomblets with military assistance funds," the source explained.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/787777.html

[Englander]

15. Maybe the money saved could be donated to MAG.

'Nabatiyeh class has close call with cluster bomb

By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Friday, November 10, 2006

NABATIYEH: Cluster bombs spread across South Lebanon by Israeli forces during the war this past summer are still endangering the lives of civilians. Harrowing stories of children being maimed and killed crop up on daily basis. One such story unfolded this week, when students at a school in the Nabatiyeh neighborhood of Zawtar Sharqieh had a brush with unexploded ordnance.

Hadi Ismail, 9, entered his class on Thursday with a cluster bomb in his hand, eager to show off his new discovery to his classmates. When his teacher realized what was going on, she asked Ismail to put the bomb carefully on his desk and then evacuated everyone from the room.

According to Ali Shuaib, a contact officer with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), an emergency team from MAG succeedded in defusing the bomb, which could have caused heavy damage.

>snip

MAG "receives dozens of calls per day from civilians, shepherds and farmers," asking for help with cluster bombs, Shuaib tells The Daily Star.

Nick Guest, a MAG technical field manager, was called to the Southern village of Ouazaiyeh on Thursday to examine a 2-meter cluster-bomb pod containing some 600 bomblets.

Eighteen MAG teams are currently working to de-mine South Lebanon. Each team is made up of 10 members. Seventeen teams have taken charge of more than 10 villages in the areas of Nabatiyeh and Tyre. The final team is charged with rapid-response missions.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=20&article_id=76789

[msmcghee]

16. Do you think maybe . .

. . that a year from now, when most of the unexploded bomblets have been defused and quite a few sheep and cows and donkeys have been blown up and many tractors have been wrecked - and not a few children and sheepherders and farmers have been killed or maimed - and maybe the people of S. Lebanon will start to get back to a semi-normal existence and not fearing for the lives of their choildren every day when they go off to school - do you think maybe they will be suggesting to Hizb'allah in the bunkers scattered around their farms and villages that it's a good time to start another war?

War is ugly senseless killing of human life - mostly innocent human life. That's why you should be condemning the cowards and criminals who start wars - not those defending their citizens and borders.

All the despair in the world over dead Lebanese children - carries no moral equivalence at all to the crime of starting the war that resulted in those deaths. But keep on spinning.

[Scurrilous]

17. U.S. says it has removed 50,000 unexploded bombs in Lebanon

<snip>

"The United States has helped remove more than 50,000 unexploded bombs in southern Lebanon since the end of the war last August with Israel, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The U.S. government's aid chief, Randall Tobias, said unexploded bombs remained a major problem in Lebanon where Israel dropped many thousands of cluster bombs. Many of those bombs are reported to be U.S.-made.

"The effort to remove the unexploded ordnance is moving along very aggressively and we're really making a lot of progress," said Tobias, who visited Lebanon last month to check on U.S. aid work there.

"At the time I was there, the estimate was that we had removed or assisted in the removal of about 50,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance," he added.

Other nations and the United Nations are also involved in the effort to remove unexploded ordnance in southern Lebanon."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789137.html

[msmcghee]

18. Hmmm, interesting.

I hadn't heard there any Americans on the ground in S. Lebanon.