U.S. REFUSES TO SIGN ANTI-CLUSTER BOMB TREATY

The BBC reports today that nations have begun signing the anti-cluster bomb treaty. More than 100 countries are going to sign on. Sadly, this number does not yet include the United States.

Reports the BBC:

"First developed during World War II, cluster bombs contain a number of smaller bomblets designed to cover a large area and deter an advancing army.

But campaigners, including some in the military, have long argued they are outmoded and immoral because of the dangers posed to civilians from bombs that do not explode and litter the ground like landmines."

With the new Obama administration there is the hope that the U.S. will sign on. It is shameful that a nation as rooted in democracy and civil liberty as the U.S. would continue to refuse to sign this treaty. How many thousands of innocent children have been killed or grievously wounded by picking up this cluster bombs thinking they were harmless toys.

Writes the BBC:

"As he opened the signing convention in Oslo, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the treaty would make the world safer, but had been too long in coming.

""Too many people lost their lives and their limbs; too many futures were shattered," he said.

""The tragedy of their needless suffering is matched only by our joy today in being able to prevent more human misery in the future."

"Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Red Cross, reminded the meeting of the deadly legacy of cluster bombs.

""The path to Oslo is also traced through the mountains and the rice paddies of south-east Asia where several hundred million sub-munitions were dropped and many tens of millions remain today," he said.

""This path runs through the lives of civilians in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam who have lived with the threat of unexploded sub-munitions for four decades.""

U.S. REFUSES TO BAN CLUSTER BOMBS, MAJOR KILLERS OF CHILDREN

The BBC reports more than 100 countries have reached an agreement to ban cluster bombs. But guess who refuses to go along? - the United States and George Bush.

Reports the BBC:

"More than 100 nations have reached an agreement on a treaty which would ban current designs of cluster bombs.

"Diplomats meeting in Dublin agreed to back an international ban on the use of the controversial weapons following 10 days of talks.

"But some of the world's main producers and stockpilers - including the US, Russia and China - oppose the move."

The only reason to use cluster bombs is their lethality. And not only against soldiers. Cluster bombs prove to be even more lethal against civilians, especially children, because to the untrained eye, cluster bombs appear to be attractive metal toys. Imagine a six-year old playing in his backyard and seeing a cluster bomber canister laying among the weeds. This is how cluster bombs kill children, they appear to be toys. But when a child picks one up, it explodes with deadly force.

That the United States is one of the few countries to support the continued use of cluster bombs is outrageous and cruel. All children of the world should oppose the U.S. in its stubborn and cruel irrationality against children.

ISRAELI ARMY CLEARED OF WRONGDOING FOR DROPPING CLUSTER BOMBS ON SOUTHERN LEBANON

Here's a decision that cannot be unexpected. Israel's military prosecutors absolve the Israeli Defense Forces of violating any rules of warfare by dropping thousands of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon during the recent Israel-Lebanon II War.

Isabel Kershner reports today in The New York Times:

"Israeli military prosecutors announced Monday that they would not press charges over the army’s use of cluster bombs during the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, actions that had been widely criticized by human rights organizations. . . ."

"Cluster bombs are not prohibited in warfare, but their use is criticized because they contain "bomblets" that explode over a wide area and may strike unintended targets. In addition, bomblets that fail to explode become, in effect, land mines that can be detonated by civilians long after fighting has stopped. More than 30 Lebanese are said to have been killed by munitions left behind after the monthlong war in 2006.

"Soon after the fighting stopped, a top United Nations aid official, Jan Egeland, described Israel’s use of cluster bombs as "shocking" and "completely immoral," not least, he said, because most had been fired in the last 72 hours of the war, when it was clear that the conflict was moving toward a resolution."

Why did Israeli Defense Forces inundate 30 miles of southern Lebanon with these deadly cluster bombs? Israel says it was targeting Hezbollah fighters, but many suspect that IDF was punishing Lebanon's civilian population for aiding and supporting Hezbollah.

To me, the whole military strategy of IDF in firing and dropping cluster bombs smacks of illegal collective punishment and the shameful targeting civilians for their political views. Because so many Lebanese would vote for Hezbollah in parliamentary elections and because so many Lebanese civilians oppose Israel's harsh military responses to the perceived terrorist threat from Hezbollah, the IDF carpets a thirty-mile swath with those immoral clusterettes.

Children be warned, don't pick up that shiny attractive looking cylinder lying there in the dirt if you don't want to give up a hand or a foot, or be blinded for life.

ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS CLUSTER BOMBS WERE NECESSARY

Who is in charge of public relations for the Olmert government of Israel? Whoever it is should be axed forthwith. Witness the PR disaster of the Israeli military trying publicly to defend its indefensible use of cluster bombs in a thirty mile swath during the last 72 hours of the Israel-Lebanon War.

The BBC web site reports:

"Israeli military prosecutors say the army's much-criticised deployment of cluster bombs in last year's Lebanon war was legal under international law.

"The Israeli army announced there would be no indictments against officers who used them, after a year-long enquiry.

""The use of the weaponry was a concrete military necessity," a statement said.

"The UN called Israel's cluster bombing "shocking and immoral," as most were used in the last 72 hours of fighting when a resolution was clearly imminent."

Instead of confessing and admitting causing a humanitarian catastrophe by dropping cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the War, Israeli authorities are trying to defend and legitimize this militaristic disaster.

We can guess about Israel's purpose of carpeting thirty miles of Lebanon adjacent to the border with Israel with deadly cluster bombs, many of which remain hidden in fields and orchards. It was to prevent militants from sneaking up to the border and shooting missiles or rockets into Israel. The question is, was dropping cluster bombs proportional and the minimal use of force necessary to prevent such future attacks?

It is hard to understand Israel's defense of cluster bombs when you hear of dozens of Lebanese children playing in their backyards, picking up the bomblets as if they were toys, and then getting their hands or feet blown off or being blinded for life.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF GEORGE BUSH'S HYPOCRISY

George Bush yesterday vetoes a stem cell funding program because it uses human embryos that otherwise would be discarded. Yet he has no interest in banning cluster bombs that spew hundreds of land mines in small canisters over huge areas because he believes they are necessary for the military to use.

Elaine Engeler writes for AP:

"Fired by artillery or dropped by aircraft, cluster bombs are canisters that open in flight and eject dozens or hundreds of small "bomblets" across a wide area. Those that do not explode right away may detonate later, experts say.

"Children are especially vulnerable because the bomblets are often an eye-catching yellow with small parachutes attached.

The United Nations has estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million of the bomblets in southern Lebanon last summer, with perhaps 40 percent of the submunitions failing to explode on impact."

What hypocrisy.

Bush believes in saving cells that have not developed into human beings, but he has no sympathy for eight-year-olds and other children who view the lethal canisters as exciting toys to be picked up and played with.