Monday, January 05, 2009

It's Raining Fire in Gaza

Cluster bombs are against International Law. Israel just like America has no problem ignoring international laws. The rules do not apply to them or the US. This is the attitude we have adopted for many years. It is simply hypocritical and not the example we should be setting.

Cluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject smaller submunitions: a cluster of bomblets. The most common types are intended to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles. Submunition based weapons designed to destroy runways, electric power transmission lines, deliver chemical or biological weapons, or to scatter land mines have also been produced. Some submunition based weapons can disperse non-munition payloads, such as leaflets.

Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians long after a conflict has ended. Unexploded submunitions are very costly to locate and remove.

Cluster bombs are prohibited under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was adopted in Dublin in May 2008 and signed by 94 nations on 3-4 December 2008 in Oslo. The general rules of international humanitarian law aimed at protecting civilians also apply to cluster bombs as they do to all weapons.

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