Mini-Mines
A cluster bomb is an air-dropped bomb packed full of munitions. The most common type is filled with hundreds of little bombs that spread over a large area before detonating. It's a highly effective form of blanketing a region with flaming death. At least on paper.
In practice, a lot of those little bombs don't go off. This doesn't mean they are duds. It just means they are death waiting to happen. Some military guy thought this was a 'feature', so he developed a cluster bomb that actually spreads mines instead of bombs.
Time and time again, mines have proven to be a really, really dumb idea. This is mainly because they don't conveniently go away when the war is over. A cluster bomb that lays a mine field with unknown boundaries has got to be one of the dumbest weapons ever conceived.
The U.S., of course, had to build some of these to make sure they were a stupid idea. What do you do with these bombs after figuring out that they're a bad idea? Why, you sell them to Israel of course! Israel doesn't think these bombs are such a dumb idea, so they drop them on Lebanon. Brilliant!
Now the Lebanese refugees are returning to their homes, and they are walking into mini-mine fields deployed throughout the region. This is on top of the unexploded regular cluster bombs lying about in people's living rooms.
I can only imagine that the people dropping these things KNEW this would happen. This is the desired result!
Congratulations.
In practice, a lot of those little bombs don't go off. This doesn't mean they are duds. It just means they are death waiting to happen. Some military guy thought this was a 'feature', so he developed a cluster bomb that actually spreads mines instead of bombs.
Time and time again, mines have proven to be a really, really dumb idea. This is mainly because they don't conveniently go away when the war is over. A cluster bomb that lays a mine field with unknown boundaries has got to be one of the dumbest weapons ever conceived.
The U.S., of course, had to build some of these to make sure they were a stupid idea. What do you do with these bombs after figuring out that they're a bad idea? Why, you sell them to Israel of course! Israel doesn't think these bombs are such a dumb idea, so they drop them on Lebanon. Brilliant!
Now the Lebanese refugees are returning to their homes, and they are walking into mini-mine fields deployed throughout the region. This is on top of the unexploded regular cluster bombs lying about in people's living rooms.
I can only imagine that the people dropping these things KNEW this would happen. This is the desired result!
Congratulations.
posted by mattjustmull | 3:40 PM | permalink
2 Comments:
Bob Dylan said it best:
"Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side."
Whatever we (or our allies) do is inherently right. What our enemies do is inherently wrong. We make a big show about the lengths we go to to avoid killing civilians, but stuff like this just goes to show how much we really care about innocent life.
Not that the Isreali government are not A-holes because they are, but I have to say they get kind of a raw deal in terms of international PR. Only in the US is everything they due considered justified, and really only half of americans, at best, feal this way. For the whole rest of the world Everthing their enemies do is justified even if it is blatantly targeting civilians and everything Isreal does is an atrocity.
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