Cluster Bombs: USA missing in action!

A cluster bomb is a container holding hundreds of smaller bomblets. It opens in mid-air and disperses the bomblets over a large area.

The smaller bombs do not always explode on impact, which means they can continue to kill innocent civilians years later.

A recent report by Handicap International claimed that 98 percent of casualties from cluster munitions are non-combatants.

CommonDreams [reporting on Agence France Presse] reports on how the US views the use of cluster bombs:

"The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We ... take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," McCormack said.

Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on, Norway said."

One can therefore assume that the Americans will not pursue the matter of Israel having used cluster bombs, supplied by the US, in the dying hours of last year's Lebanon War. There have been many reports of innocent civilians, mainly children, having been killed and maimed by the cluster bombs Israel dropped over Lebanon. Could there be anything more disgraceful or shameful?

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