The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Cooler heads have prevailed and the war in south Lebanon is at least temporarily suspended.

Except for the three or four people who the Israelis kill every day in the area south of the Litani River. In the closing days of the war, in what may have been a desperate attempt to silence Hezbollah's rocket batteries, Israel "flooded" southern Lebanon with cluster munitions.

Cluster munitions are large bombs or artillery shells which contain smaller bombs, or "bomblets", which themselves contain scores of projectiles like giant beebees or small ball bearings. About thirty percent of these fail to explode on contact. These will explode later, often at the slightest contact.

Israel admits to firing 1.2 million bomblets into the occupied areas of Southern Lebanon, arguably in violation of international law, almost certainly in violation of a classified agreement with the United States. The agreement with us arises because we manufactured many of these charming weapons and sold them to Israel.

1.2 million times 30 percent means that there are something like 360,000 unexploded bomblets in Lebanon. In olive trees and oranges trees, In ditches and on roof tops. Anywhere. And they kill 3 or four people a day. Often children.

So now the Lebanese must decide between letting the olives and oranges and other crops rot or chancing death or maiming by Israeli/U.S. cluster bombs.

The entire story is in The Independent via truthout.

You may, if you wish, cry in rage and shame, but try to do so quietly so as not to disturb the other passengers and

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jd