Where is the line? Allow chemical weapons? What do you think was the purpose of the Geneva Conventions? No on “anything goes.” Utterly no.
Separately, unlike other weapons, cluster munitions do not self-destruct. Instead, they slowly degrade, becoming more explosive unless defused and removed.
I am having a hard time understanding what this is supposed to mean. The U.S. had developed landmines that will self-destruct after a certain amount of time. As far as I know, they have never been deployed. If they were, they would have the exact same kind of “dud” problem as every other form of explosive ordnance, i.e. a certain percent will fail to self-destruct leaving them dangerous.
But other than landmines, every kind of explosive ordnance is “designed to self-destruct” in the sense that their whole purpose is to, you know, explode. Some percentage of them fail, depending on the quality of manufacture (a thing that tends to decrease as the manufacturing country comes closer to defeat). Some explosives grow less explosive with age, some grow more unstable with age, some grow both less explosive but more unstable with age. All of them have to be manually cleared by experts when discovered. Cluster bomblets are no different in this respect than any other kind of explosive munition.
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Nearly every commenter here fails to comprehend that the ONLY control we have is over OUR behavior.
WE will be judged by OUR actual actions.
Cluster Bombs, of which we are providing 100,000, will, by the estimate of a researcher who know fo what he speaks, will leave AT Least One MILLION unexploded bomblets, to be detonated by future generations of innocent civilians and their children.
History has already proven that MORE THAN HALF of those killed by cluster munitions are civilians. In absolute numbers.
The ridicule remains directed at those who unapologetically cheer the puppy of saluter bombs to Ukraine.
Unconscionable.
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I’m sure all the cluster bomb apologists here sided with Bush, Cheney, Yoo and the rest on torture and waterboarding. War on Terror and all.
Google is overcome with “cluster bomb” search results, but cluster mines are a real thing that have been given to and deployed in Ukraine. They are supposed to defuse within something like 24 hours, and they’re actually compliant with the international treaty on cluster munitions. To the best of my recollection before Google made “cluster mine” 100% unsearchable, each artillery shell contains 9 mines.
Your moral superiority has been noted. Will you now suggest Ukraine cede land for peace?
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Good morning. I didn’t do that. Matter of fact, I have an active plan to piss on Dubya’s grave. Try harder to distinguish evils.
Good morning. I have an active plan to shit on Dubya’s grave. The exact same apologies are being used here. I know: How inconvenient.
Cogent analysis.
It’s so easy to climb onto your moral high horse when you have nothing at stake and nothing to lose. Go ahead, flag my response again. Show us your moral courage by refusing to answer.
Because anyone who disagrees with you on anything is utterly depraved and irredeemably evil. It just stands to reason, because you, and you alone, are the moral arbiter of humanity. Indeed, everyone who disagrees with you on anything is probably a child molester too.
I was being sarcastic. On the issue of cluster bombs, you will find well-meaning individuals on all sides. But it’s a slippery slope, and the same arguments recited here are strikingly similar to the ones used to justify torture.