Cluster Killing Of Civilians

A strange AP article, February 14, 2007--Happy Valentines Day?--about "limits" on the use of cluster bombs:

Democratic senators introduced legislation that would bar US use of cluster bombs in or near civilian areas or that have a "dud rate" of one percent or greater.

Dropped from aircraft or fired by artillery, cluster munitions open above ground and disperse dozens to hundreds of tiny bomblets over a wide area.

The bill would restrict funding for the use, sale or transfer of cluster munitions unless their submunitions have a failure rate of less than one percent, or unless the president grants a waiver on national security grounds.

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So let's see, each one spews hundreds of bombs throughout the land. Farming, leaving town, going on a nature walk, become activities punishable by death. Ongoing terrorism for many decades to come. While land mines are labor intensive, cluster munitions can be inflicted from afar.

The result is that the world has one terrorist that inflicts modest harm from a cave, while a far more dangerous and psychotic terrorist causes far more suffering from the White House Situation Room.

And did you catch the silence about the Israeli terrorism of Lebanon through the use of US cluster munitions? I guess as long as one has never worn a turban, the Geneva Conventions don't count.

TLC