http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/02/16/flooding-south-lebanon

I’d be interested in seeing it.

Eammon, your comment about cluster bombs and NATO is
inappropriate in two ways. First, you can read about it in the
same places you can read about Israeli use of cluster bombs, or
the use of cluster bombs in general. Second, there is the
matter of the scale of the usage:

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/62428/section/7
“Israel’s use of cluster munitions was the most extensive use of the weapon anywhere in the world since the 1991 Gulf War and was concentrated in a relatively small geographical area. The number and density of cluster munitions used in Lebanon vastly exceeded their use in prior wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq where Human Rights Watch also conducted investigations.”

The main point however is the matter of “hypocrisy”. It’s good
that you refer to Israel actions as “bad” and showed a
“disgraceful and possibly criminal lack of concern
for the safety of the civilian population of Lebanon”.
Again, however, what should the people of South Lebanon do?
There is no reason why Lebanese civilians should have to
live with the thread of their children having their limbs
blown off while playing in the backyard, especially since Israel is
refusing to hand over the strike data.

It seems to me that if your (Eamonn and Petra) standards
(not mine) are applied as well to the people of South Lebanon,
then they, or some organization claiming to act for them, such as
Hezbollah, has the right to bomb security stations throughout
Israel (or the United States), in order to show that this
situation cannot continue.

http://blog.z-word.com/2008/09/cluster-munitions-that-work/

and in my pre Z word days here

http://tinyurl.com/cluster1

and about the stupidity of banning such weapons here

http://tinyurl.com/cluster2

Cluster munitions were used by Nato in the air campaigns that led to dayton and the removal of the serbs from Kosovo.

I am sure they can’t have caused any trouble for the people living in the areas where they were used otherwise we’d be hearing about it all the time

” it’s not just how many or how few people get killed or wounded by those “home-made” rockets — it’s simply that living under the constant threat of rocket attacks, day in and day out for years, is not something that is acceptable.”

What do you suggest that the people of South Lebanon do regarding
the unexploded cluster bombs, a constant threat in their lives?

One of many reports on this topic, which I notice are
(almost?) entirely ignored by Engage/Z-word/Harry’s Place:
(please correct me if I’m wrong on this)

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/israel-winograd-commission-disregards-israeli-war-crimes-20080131

The Israeli government’s persistent refusal to hand over the cluster bombs strike data and the exact coordinates of the areas into which its forces fired the cluster bombs has made this already painstaking mine-clearance task more deadly and time consuming. To date, 40 people (27 civilians and 13 de-mining personnel) have been killed and 234 have been injured (200 civilians and 34 de-mining personnel) by unexploded ordnance and the United Nation Mine Action Coordination Centre (UN-MACC) has identified more then 900 sites contaminated by unexploded but still lethal remnants of cluster bombs and other ordnance launched by Israeli forces into South Lebanon.