http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06cluster.html?hp&ex=1160193600&en=7e4e9f554d5fd023&ei=5094&partner=homepagecomment: I wish this headline were more truthful, and said
U.S. bomblets plague Lebanon, since these are weapons that were
rushed to Israel , at the behest of AIPAC & its allies. It was used to terrorize the people of Lebanon into giving into Israeli demands and then to punish them for not being compliant enough (most were dropped when it was clear a cease-fire will take effect before Israel had met its stated goals). That Israel dropped them just hours before the cease-fire was to take effect makes it even more reprehensible. It was, as described, a
monstorous and insane act .
I think what should be emphasized here is not only the arms and legs of children that will be lost by these bomblets, but the fact that safety requires months and months of painstaking work in cleaning these US weapons so as to avoid injury. That means much delay in rebuilding, which means suffering that will be little noticed by much of the world, but very much remembered by the people of Lebanon. Before this attack, relations between the US and Lebanon were improving. I think that has been sent back a few decades. Thank you Olmert. Thank you Bush.
Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them.
United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region. They are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble and littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools.
As of Sept. 28, officials here said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people — and killed 18 others.
<snip>
She said a large percentage of the unexploded bomblets were made in America, while some were produced in Israel. Each one has a white tail dangling off the back, like the tail of a kite. As they fall to the ground, the tail spins and unscrews the firing pin.
When the device hits, the front end fires a huge slug while the casing blasts apart into a spray of deadly metal fragments. When they fail to detonate they cling to the ground, and with their white tails look deceptively like toys, so children are often those who are injured.
More at link above. Demand the end of exporting Cluster Bombs. Anywhere.