"Cluster bombs called 'war crime'"

(BUFDRVR) wrote:
This is about cluster bombs being
used indiscriminately and killing civilians.

If its about the indiscriminate use of CBUs,
no problem since neither the UK
nor the US employed *any* weapon indiscriminately.

If the issue is UXO from CBU employment, this
is another matter and one I
believe both the UK and US have done there best
to deal with. On averag there's
going to be an approximate 10% dud rate for
CBU submunitions (BLUs). In both
Afghanistan and Iraq, leaflets were dropped
warning people to stay away from
the unexploded BLUs. Because of the high illiteracy
rate in Afghanistan, the
leaflets were in picture form. Because of the
remote areas where CBUs were used
in Afghanistan, civilian contact with UXO is
minimal. Iraq is a different
story, however a successful one. Submunition
dispenser use was pretty heavy in
Iraq and included everything from air delivered
to Army ATACMS. Use was
confined, as much as operationally practicable,
to use away from major
population areas. With all the use of CBUs in
Iraq, and they are still a very
important weapon, the low civilian incident
rate (by comparison of quantity
dropped) speaks well for allied air and ground
forces.

Those accountable should be punished for their
actions.

Current CBUs meet all international requirements
for a legal weapon, thus no
punishment is warrented.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those
bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"
I'll agree with that. The problem is not the weapon, it's the enemy putting
his military assets in civilian areas to try and make them immune to attack.
Didn't work, though.

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