Shooting without a target

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"During the final days of the war, when it became clear that the Israel Defense Forces had no solution to the ongoing launchings of Katyusha rockets, a decision was made to "flood" the area with cluster bombs, delivered by artillery shells and rockets. This was non-target specific shooting, based on the assumption that the bomblets would cover a large area, possibly destroy Hezbollah rocket launchers and cause as many casualties as possible among its fighters.

A soldier who fired 155mm artillery shells delivering cluster bombs told Haaretz that he was ordered to "flood" the area with these bombs, without having a specific target. A commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) told Haaretz that his order was to "saturate the area." These statements were published in stories by Meron Rapoport on September 8 and 12. More than a million cluster bomblets were dropped in southern Lebanon. Each M-26 rocket fired by an MLRS contains 644 cluster bomblets, capable of covering an area the size of a football field.

Firing at undefined targets is a problem in and of itself. The dilemma it entails is reflected in statements by soldiers who fired cluster bombs during training and recognized that this type of weapon should be used only in a war against a regular army, for the purpose of hitting arms supply convoys or missile batteries - not against civilian areas. But beyond this dilemma, the committee investigating the war should find out whether anyone considered what would happen to the thousands of cluster bomblets that failed to explode, and were therefore transformed into mines spread throughout southern Lebanon."

<snip>

"Questions regarding the IDF's conduct during the war have many implications, both moral and practical. Israel's ability to rally international support depends in part on the distinction it makes between innocent civilians and the enemy. While Hamas and Hezbollah attack civilians as part of their strategy, Israel declares that it does not do so, and that it makes an effort to avoid harming civilians. The decision to drop cluster bombs on villages, with no specified targets; the decision to use these bombs over a large area, making it impossible to know in advance who will be there; and the well-known fact that a large percentage of these munitions will not explode on impact, and will therefore be transformed into mines in an area to which civilians will return, are all further testimony to the flawed decision-making of those who managed the war."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/762427.html

[neoblues]

1. My ASSumptions had been...

that the IDF would have been deploying those munitions across large areas of the barren hillsides and such where they'd been witnessing missile launches, and not "targeting villages", etc. Then too, while it's known that many of the bomblets won't explode in the initial explosion, I had also imagined that any bomblet designed to go of on impact, that survives such a catastrophic event (from the point of view of the bomblet) as smacking into the ground or going through an initial explosion only to then impact the ground in their final disposition, might be rather resistant to detonating from something as relatively mild as a person stepping on them... I suppose it's certainly possible they could go off that way or have even been adjusted to somehow be spread and then become active (an intentional spreading of a minefield), or perhaps from merely weathering the heat/cold of the climate they could become more sensitive... In any case, I'd expect they'd be sensitive to being run over by a vehicle. I personally wouldn't want to take the chance even of stepping on one, for sure.

I guess we'll be hearing about the incidence of people coming into contact--whatever the results of such contact, in the days, months and years ahead. Until then we can only guess; well, military experts should be able to more than guess--and surely someone so qualified will speak out...

It certainly smacks of both desperation and lack of reasonable forethought to have resorted to such a tactic. Alas, it's done. Any public relations losses will unavoidably occur as the story plays out. If anyone has any bright ideas or technology for finding, disarming and collecting such bomblets needs to get in touch with Lebanon. Perhaps the U.N. security force will be asked to help address the matter. Perhaps the IDF/Israel itself will be asked to help cleanup the mess they've made (I'm trying to picture Isreali bomb specialists being allowed to roam over the hills and valleys and/or villages of Southern Lebanon... methinks Hezbollah won't be too keen on that, given that they still have an array/network of hidden facilities/stores throughout the area).

Oh well, I guess that's what ASS-umptions are for--to be challenged, that is... and hopefully before any bad decisions are made based on them.

[izzie]

2. I would say this is used in many wars. A final show of power?

Even when it means nothing both sides seem to do it. Well the means is a lot of people out side the army seems to be killed but look at the last so many wars and it seems to be used by both sides of the fight.

[breakaleg]

3. It's certainly a slap in the face to the UN and it's cessation of

hostilities agreement they had just passed.

But then this whole war, from Israel's side, was based on getting as many shots in before someone stopped them.