You won't find any disagreement with me that innocent deaths have been kept very low... indeed, I've commented on it.
Cluster bombs, however, are not a discriminate form of weapon: if they're being used on the outskirts of a town, whether against a(transient) military presence or not, what you are effectively doing is laying a large unmarked minefield in which no one knows exactly where the mines are.
The best of them have a ~5% non-explode rate - meaning that the best of these bombs will leave 15-25 small, dangerous mines.
They can and do kill innocents - often small children, who see brightly-coloured objects and investigate - for many years afterwards. Have you not read any of the testimony from Laos, or Cambodia, or Afghanistan, or Kosovo...?
That's why I've suggested that the developers be given a real incentive to get them right, before they're seen as fit for use.
Gloating that "War is hell!" does not improve your case, BTW. I suggest you go and say it so happily in a field hospital. perhaps you could quote it to a few victims of cluser bombs, or their parents... think they'd happily write it off so glibly? |
