The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range

From the "no shit, Sherlock" file:

Israel may have violated agreements with Washington on the use of US-made cluster bombs in its war with Hizbullah in Lebanon last summer, the state department said today.

The Bush administration must now decide what action, if any, to take against Israel for its use of the weapons against towns and villages from which Hizbullah fighters fired rockets.

Right. I'm guessing the chances of that are somewhere between stupid and none, much like its figurehead, he of attacking reporters with a D-10 bulldozer. (Clue to reporters: what if Mister Man gave a photo-op and none of you showed up? Think about it.)

Anyway, as the article points out, Israel makes its own cluster munitions, so any American show of disapproval would be mostly symbolic, kinda like pretending to worship a deity who apparently hates people.

The Israelis' response to this is predictable:

"The IDF [Israel Defence Force] does not deliberately attack civilians, and takes steps to minimise any incidental collateral harm by warning them in advance of an action, even at the expense of losing the element of surprise," the Israeli foreign ministry said last summer.

Nevertheless, Israeli television reported in December that the military's judge advocate general was gathering evidence for possible criminal charges against military officers who may have given orders for cluster bombs to be dropped on populated areas.

One thing we could do, if we gave enough of a shit, is to lead the way in getting rid of chickenshit "weapons" such as land mines and cluster bombs once and for all, or at least strongly sanction their use in populated areas. You want to land-mine the DMZ or the Waziristan border, fine, as long as it's clearly delineated. But the collateral damage from these damned things is nearly always non-combatant, and as such should be unacceptable for use in populated areas, especially cities.

Israel has a right to defend itself, but its response last summer was disproportionate, and its excuses disingenuous. Saying that you don't "deliberately" target civilians, simply because you "warn" them before you drop what are in effect land mines in their neighborhoods, just doesn't wash.