More Bushco Cowardice

The International Committee of the Red Cross demanded action today on the use of cluster bombs, calling for a worldwide ban, as noted here.

The ICRC also pointed out, according to the news story, that the use of such arms by the Israeli military in Lebanon in the recent war seemed unprecedented, in particular:

According to Handicap International, the Israelis used four million cluster bombs, of which up to 1.6 million failed to explode.

At least 20 people have been killed and 120 injured by residual cluster bombs since the August 14 ceasefire, it said last week.

And what does our government have to say about this (as noted in the story)?

"We don't think the new rules are really needed," the senior American delegate said on condition of anonymity.

Cluster bombs allow the US to protect large sites, such as aerodromes, without needing to use large quantities of explosives, the source explained.

If such cluster bombs were banned, he argued, combatants could resort to even more destructive weapons.

The fact that this person said this anonymously, though they are ostensibly a member of a government purporting to represent US, is sickening almost beyond words. And of course, instead of looking for more efficient ways to kill people, we could actually be trying to mediate conflict instead.

(So “pre-9/11” of me, I know…)

But it wasn’t always that way. As this Common Dreams article notes (where the author basically categories cluster bombs as land mines, which in fact is what they become when they land without exploding):

The Americans themselves are committed to abandoning landmines by 2005 — or were under Bill Clinton.

So there actually was a time when we were trying to do the right thing.

But since there is very little likelihood that anyone in this country will ever be victimized by this (with Great White Father Dubya "fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here")...