I personally have no problem with cluster bombs as a weapon of war as a general rule.  Having said that, you cannot use them in an urban environment and claim that you are trying to minimize casualties and be precise in your attacks.  Cluster bombs are, by their nature, non-precise weapons meant to wipe out many people over a spread out area.  If there are civilians anywhere near them, they are going to be killed or maimed.

 The big problem with cluster bombs beyond their imprecise nature, is that they leave unexploded bomblets which can be set off by civilians long after the bombs drop.  So provided that you're not using them in civilian areas and you make some effort, after hostilities have concluded to clean up the mess, I don't see these as an innately unethical weapon. 


by sterno on 01/05/2009 05:33:38 PM EST

the unexploded bomblets are the problem with cluster bombs and make them unethical. Here's my reasoning and I guess why most countries agree:

"can be set off by civilians long after the bombs drop"

experience has shown us that they will be set off by civilians in the long run, what makes it even more tragically is that we see that a large percentage of the victims are children

I applaud the Western countries who go in after the conflicts and clean up these bomblets, but they require specialised teams and it takes years to clean them up and by then more innocent victims will have fallen, same problem with landmines. And let's be honest, how big is the chance do you think that Israel will clean them up? 0%?

by callisto on 01/05/2009 06:16:30 PM EST

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