Nations Begin Signing Cluster Bomb Ban: Can We at Least Design the Weapon So ALL the Bomblets Explode?

One of the most infuriating things about cluster bombs is that when the weapon is deployed, and hundreds of bomblets are deployed, not all of them explode, which turns the impact zones into deadly minefields. Here's what a cluster bombing looks like:



Despite what the announcer says, not all nations that have cluster bombs deploy them correctly. Israel hit southern Lebanon with cluster bombs (supposedly the upgraded units with the self destruct units, but take a look at how effective the self destruct actually is.) The following video was taken by an Australian after the Israeli-Lebanese/Hezbollah war (audio commentary starts about 14 seconds into the video):



Israel and Russia both used cluster bombs in close proximity to civilian populations; the Russians disregarded the rules of war and dropped the munitions directly onto Georgian cities during their war earlier this year, deliberately targeting civilians. They did the same thing in both of their Chechnyan wars (Shali, Chechnya, in 1995, and in Elistanzhi, Chechnya, in 1999).

NATO used them in Yugoslavia, we used them in Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam. And in every use of them, there's a minefield left over. It's believed that ten million

And now there's an international conference going on; 100+ nations are going to ban them, including Afghanistan, Laos, Lebanon, Great Britain and 18 of 26 NATO countries. 88 nations are expected to sign it today, with 22 promising to sign tomorrow; when this is done, it will go to the United Nations where the remaining nations of the 192-member General Assembly can sign it as well.

The United States, Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and several others have indicated that they will not sign it.

If we cannot design the damn thing to work as intended, perhaps we SHOULD sign the treaty and develop an effective system that will detect and detonate leftover munitions with minimum risk to the mine clearing teams.

Cluster bomb munitions can kill years after a peace treaty is signed between two warring nations, and that's not right, especially if little kids are the ones picking up the bomblets and having them explode in their hands, or blow their legs off.

I'm in favor of the treaty. These kinds of weapons, while very effective at destroying an enemy target, can be replaced with more reliable weapons that function as performed. The failure rate is simply too great to ignore.