How many people know that the usage of cluster bombs is very common in military excursions, and how many know how they work?
During the Vietnam War, when the U.S. bombed Laos, they dropped several tons of them, with the sole purpose of killing civilians. In addition to destroying mass villages, the cluster bombs were used to destroy livestock and crops. Basically, since the U.S. didn't know who the enemy was, they chose to destroy everything. Those who fled to caves often met their fate by seeing a rocket shot into their cave. Cluster bombs, contrary to what anyone may tell you, have absolutely no effect on military targets like tanks or bases. They are meant to kill people.
What is the most troubling about cluster bombs is their high rate of failure. An estimated 1/3 of all cluster bombs dropped on Laos failed to explode. Many of them landed in marshes or soft ground, where they simply fell undetonated. Thirty years later, an estimated 100,000 are slowly eliminated a year, and it is expected to take several decades more to even make a substantial dent in ridding them from Laos. In the meantime, civilians are being killed and the economy has remained poor, as the threat of hidden bombs have prevented major construction. All in a "secret war" on Laos that wasn't even supposed to have happened, and wouldn't have been discovered, had it not been for journalists (which have since been forbidden to report from war zones due to "national security").
But this isn't the end. They are still often used in military campaigns. NATO used them in the fight against Kosovo. I do not have statistics on Afghanistan if they were used or not. Maybe someone can fill me in on that. They are not only an inefficient bomb with the sole purpose of killing people, rather than military targets, but they have major repercussions for the civilian populations afterwards, which will mire them in poverty for decades to come. Like the quest to end land mine use, I think it is only responsible that we end the use of cluster bombs.
Melon
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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time
During the Vietnam War, when the U.S. bombed Laos, they dropped several tons of them, with the sole purpose of killing civilians. In addition to destroying mass villages, the cluster bombs were used to destroy livestock and crops. Basically, since the U.S. didn't know who the enemy was, they chose to destroy everything. Those who fled to caves often met their fate by seeing a rocket shot into their cave. Cluster bombs, contrary to what anyone may tell you, have absolutely no effect on military targets like tanks or bases. They are meant to kill people.
What is the most troubling about cluster bombs is their high rate of failure. An estimated 1/3 of all cluster bombs dropped on Laos failed to explode. Many of them landed in marshes or soft ground, where they simply fell undetonated. Thirty years later, an estimated 100,000 are slowly eliminated a year, and it is expected to take several decades more to even make a substantial dent in ridding them from Laos. In the meantime, civilians are being killed and the economy has remained poor, as the threat of hidden bombs have prevented major construction. All in a "secret war" on Laos that wasn't even supposed to have happened, and wouldn't have been discovered, had it not been for journalists (which have since been forbidden to report from war zones due to "national security").
But this isn't the end. They are still often used in military campaigns. NATO used them in the fight against Kosovo. I do not have statistics on Afghanistan if they were used or not. Maybe someone can fill me in on that. They are not only an inefficient bomb with the sole purpose of killing people, rather than military targets, but they have major repercussions for the civilian populations afterwards, which will mire them in poverty for decades to come. Like the quest to end land mine use, I think it is only responsible that we end the use of cluster bombs.
Melon
------------------
"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time