So, who's crazy here? Must be me...

glenn, in commenting on the execrable labeling of dennis kucinich as a crazy wacko for opposing the insane policies and endless wars of our government, dares to point the finger at those who are truly certifiable...

The current President not only has seized the power to assassinate American citizens with no charges, but also to imprison people indefinitely with no charges, to bomb six different countries where no war is declared and where civilians are routinely killed, to invoke extreme, self-parodying levels of secrecy to hide what he does, and to prosecute wars even after Congress votes against their authorization. His cabinet is filled with people who, while in public life, advocated an aggressive attack on another country on the basis of weapons that did not exist, including his Vice President and Secretary of State. His financial team is filled with the very same people who implemented the Wall-Street-subservient policies that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Despite all that, it would be unhealthy in the extreme to hold your breath waiting for the Prospect or the Post to mock any of them as crazy or “wacky,” because what they advocate — as crazy as it is — fits comfortably within the approved orthodoxies of establishment Washington.

wouldn't it be lovely to see the tables turned and have everyone suddenly grasp the truth of the insane behavior that has so many of us in its thrall...?

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Pine Gap, Australia

interesting... a military base in australia dedicated to military targeting and signals acquisition...

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Bush hypocrisy: Kurds in American Iraq have done much worse things to Turkey than Hizbullah did to Israel

juan cole...

The hypocrisy of the Bush case is obvious when it complains about Iran supporting Hizbullah and Hamas. The Kurds based in American Iraq have done much worse things to Turkey in the past month than Hizbullah did to Israel in June of 2006. Yet when Israel launched a brutal and wideranging war on all of Lebanon, destroying precious infrastructure and dumping enormous amounts of oil into the Mediterranean, damaging Beirut airport, destroying essential bridges in Christian areas, and then releasing a million cluster bomblets on civilian areas in the last 3 days of the war-- when Israel did all that, Bush and Cheney applauded and argued against a 'premature' cease-fire! Yet they are trying to convince Turkey just to put up stoically with the PKK terrorists who have killed dozens of Turkish troops recently and kidnapped 8 (again, more than the number of Iraeli troops that were kidnapped). Bush's coddling of the PKK in Iraq is not different from Iran's support for Hizbullah, except that the PKK is a more dangerous and brutal organization than Hizbullah.

Among the more fantastic charges that Bush made against Iran was that its government was actively arming and helping the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. In fact, the Taliban are extremist Sunnis who hate, and have killed large numbers of Shiites. Shiite Iran is unlikely to support them. [...] The neo-Taliban are being supported by Pakistan...

hypocrisy and lies in the bush administration are so rampant as to hardly be worthy of notice, were it not for the fact that they're deliberate attempts to justify the continual death and destruction perpetrated by the largest state sponsor of global terrorism...

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The M85 cluster bomb in Lebanon: "about 1200 fragments dispersed over a large lethal area"

of course, it's not just lebanon... these vicious instruments of maiming, permanent disability and death are in use all over the world... lebanon just so happens to be one of the countries most heavily carpeted with them...

(note: i posted both this past february and in may on cluster bombs...)

Lebanon has a devastating cluster bomb problem. Hit hard during the final days of last summer's conflict with Israel, hundreds of thousands of unexploded munitions are strewn throughout the south's rural towns and fertile fields and valleys. Although there have been 255 civilian and de-mining casualties to date, official requests for Israel's cluster bomb strike data have gone unanswered.

"The reality of the situation is we simply don't know how many there are, and we will never know until the Israelis tell us how many they fired," says Chris Clark, the United Nations programme manager for the Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC), the official body tasked with coordinating munitions clearance with the Lebanese Army in the south.

So far the clearance teams working under the MACC have destroyed over 131,000 cluster bombs. While U.S. munitions manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s are the majority found and destroyed, Israeli M85 cluster munition strikes have been discovered mostly in fields and towns like Blida along the Blue Line, the UN demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon.

Stockpiled by the U.S., Britain and Germany among others, the M85 cluster bomb is shaped like a miniature tin can with a white ribbon on top that spins to load the bomb once it's airborne. While older versions have a single fuse, the current model is equipped with a second; a 'safety' fuse that detonates automatically if the initial one fails.

[...]

ts manufacturers cite the contemporary M85's failure rate at less than one percent -- results that countries like Britain hold up for justifying their continued use. However, independent studies since conducted in 'real' -- as opposed to laboratory -- conditions have determined the figure to be more like 5 to 10 percent. [note: Landmine Action M85 Cluster Bomb Fact Sheet here - PDF]

Clark seconds this finding. "What we have established here (in Lebanon) is that the average failure rate is at least 6 percent. So for the users of this system to continue to use them on a basis that they have a negligible failure rate is clearly foolish."

The push to ban cluster munitions worldwide by 2008 was kicked off in Oslo earlier this year. Spearheaded by the Britain-based Cluster Munition Coalition representing hundreds of civil society groups, the conferences have successfully recruited 80 countries -- including producers, users and stockpilers -- to sign on so far.

But top weapons manufacturers and exporters -- the U.S., China and Russia -- are staying away, and Britain, although a participant, is fighting hard for the exclusion of the M85 from the ban.

a little bit about one of the m85 manufacturers, israeli military industries...

The rising threats of terror and asymmetric warfare pose new challenges for national security in the 21st century. To effectively confront these perils, military and security forces must respond and transform, based on the rapid assessment of new threats, determinaton of doctrinal and operational requirements, acquisition of new equipment and training of qualified manpower.

As one of the world’s leading international defense industries, Israel Military Industries (IMI) is uniquely positioned to support such adaptation processes. IMI, a diversified, hi-tech company, offers its domestic and international customers a unique range of world-class defense products and systems to meet the changing operational requirements of today’s challenging environment. With its specializations in the development, manufacture and deployment of a wide range of state-of-the-art combat-ready solutions, IMI has established itself as a leading global defense contractor.

and here's the product in question, the "M85 Dual-Purpose Bomblet"... note the claim: "about 1200 fragments dispersed over a large lethal area"...

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Making Latin America cluster bomb free

Mohamed, a cluster bomb victim

the entire WORLD should be cluster bomb free, but it's a start...

Peru's proposal to make Latin America the world's first cluster munitions-free region received broad support from the countries that took part in this week's intergovernmental conference on a future global treaty against the weapons in Lima, said local authorities.

The Wednesday through Friday meeting was a success, with 22 additional nations joining the process of drafting an international convention to ban cluster bombs, which began in February in Oslo, Norway and is to conclude in late 2008, said Peruvian Deputy Defence Minister Fabián Novak.

That brings the total number of countries involved in the process to 68. The convention would be similar to the Mine Ban Treaty, which bans anti-personnel land mines.

"We have taken sure steps towards a legal instrument aimed at protecting human beings, which would prohibit the use, production and storage of cluster munitions," Novak told IPS. "That is demonstrated by the increase in the number of nations that have adhered to the process that began in Oslo."

"At the next regional meeting, in Costa Rica, a sister country that backs Peru's proposal, we will build a consensus to turn Latin America into the first region free of cluster bombs," he said.

[...]

Cluster bombs are dropped in a canister that splits open in mid-air, scattering hundreds of soda-can-size bomblets over wide areas. The bombs can be either air-dropped or ground-launched, and are difficult to target accurately. Between five and 30 percent of the bomblets do not explode on impact, posing a risk to civilians for years to come.

cluster bombs and land mines are horrible weapons, right up there with nukes as things that only someone with a truly demented view of the world could dream up... of course they will continue to exist, but that doesn't mean they can't be forbidden and eradicated to the maximum extent possible...

unfortunately, i learned something i didn't know, and, as one who lives part-time in argentina, was distressed to find out, particularly since argentina is proposing an exception for themselves...

Argentina, one of the Latin American nations that manufactures and stores cluster bombs, backed a proposal by Australia, Finland, France and Poland to include an exception in the international convention for countries that produce bombs with a self-destruct mechanism.

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), made up of 200 organisations pushing for a total ban, is vigorously opposed to the proposed exceptions.

Director of the Human Rights Watch Arms Division Steve Goose told IPS that trusting the self-destruct mechanisms of cluster bombs is akin to believing that it makes them less lethal, which he said is absolutely false.

and, of course, my own country could hardly be expected to support such a rational initiative...

[T]he United States, which is not taking part in the process, wants cluster bombs to be discussed within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). But during the debates in Lima, most of the participating nations rejected that proposition, arguing that the CCW is ineffective and burdened by red tape.

U.S. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jody Williams remarked to IPS that she was not surprised that countries that produce and use cluster bombs are the very countries that are applying pressure for the question to be discussed under the CCW.

Williams, who headed up the movement that led to the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty against land mines, said that in November 2006, the countries that form part of the CCW rejected an initiative to launch negotiations aimed at banning cluster munitions.

So, she asked, "what can we expect" from that forum? Besides, noted the activist, the countries most heavily affected by cluster bombs do not form part of the CCW.

yep, "what can we expect...?" damn little, for sure...

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Shameful and despicable - rejecting the treaty but seeking "technical upgrades"

cluster bombs and other anti-personnel weapons are among the nastiest devices in the entire nasty weapons inventory, with the possible exception of depleted uranium and other "dirty" bombs...

The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We ... take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," McCormack said.

Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on, Norway said.

"We, ourselves, have already taken a couple of other steps with regard to technical upgrades to cluster munitions, as well as looking very closely at the rules of engagement, how they are used," said McCormack.

the fact that the u.s. rejects such a treaty is further evidence that the u.s. is and will seek to retain the title of the world's most powerful terrorist state...

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