Cluster bomb duds that shouldn't exist

Australian John Rodsted films M85 cluster bomb duds for Norwegian People's Aid in Lebanon. The duds are the deadly remnants of the Israeli attacks in 2006. The duds will lie like landmines, ready to kill and maim, until they are cleared, or they blow up when disturbed by local civilians.

The film shows a dud problem producers and some states insist cannot exist because of the M85's self destruct mechanism. What are these then?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cluster
• bomb
• military
• munition
• NPA
• npaid
• submunition
• bomblet
• lebanon
• M85
• CMC

[variatas]

It's so touching that everyone here fails to grasp that his point is that Israel, and the US defense industry that makes the M85, has downplayed the failure rate of the self-destruct mechanisms purported to prevent problems with unexploded ordnance laying dormant and posing a hazard to innocent people, which is a huge humanitarian crisis. How would you feel if your child was killed by an unexploded bomb that "shouldn't exist"? Would that comfort you in your loss? These are PEOPLE.

[burgcochem]

This is done on puroise, to terroroize the civilian population.

[Valyn66]

@burgcochem If they wanted to do that, I can think of one or two ways for them to be way more effective about it. People accuse the powerful nations of being "brutal" but try to imagine for a second if they actually were. If they got tired of being held to a higher standard than the people they fight and fought the way the insurgents do. Imagine the bloodbath.

[rickcain2320]

@variatas

China makes cluster bombs too, of course their morality in such matters is nil as well.

[rickcain2320]

Shouldn't they paint cluster bombs in fluorescent paint, and put skulls on them, so on the outside chance they don't blow up they're easy to find and kids may understand that anything with a skull on it is a bad thing?

[gevayoav]

The people of Lebanon can only blame Hezbollah for waging war on Israel from their lands. the fact is the cluster bombs are very affective against rocket squads that the Hezbollah deployed, we wouldn't have used those bombs if we didn't have a good reason to.

P.S.

the Hezbollah also used cluster bombs warheads in the 2006 war, the only difference is that the Hezbollah deliberately fired them at civilian towns while we fired ours at the Hezbollah fighters.

[themightyPhantom]

If hamas stops firing rockets isreal will stop using bombs and everyone will be happy I know its a bit optimistic but you never know though I will not be holding  my breath. getting that close to the bomblet is stupid if the man or his team is injured then some poor bastard has to get them out of there

[pensive69]

someone asked me if i really thought that Israel should show a callous disregard for citizens and use cluster bombs...

when they fight forest fires, they often fight fire with fire.

that leaves a burned out area with nothing left to consume

or fuel the fire. i'd be thinking differently if i was in Israel and someone

over the border thought lobbing missles and rockets was

OK. i'd push the border live zone back as far as needed

and give the citizens a chance to leave. and find cover.

[tmasters27]

I wish it were on purpose to think it was is retarded, they use these as IED's

[dentonchrisfire]

So true.

[Tenjac]

This is another reason to invest in the Sensor Fuzed Weapon, which does basically the same thing to the enemy without risking leaving all these live explosives laying around.

[dillyboy1984]

@pensive69 So you genuinely agree with the idea that Israel should use terrorism (thats what this method of area denial seems to be) to wage a war on terrorism? I think it displays a callous disrespect for the civillians of other countries especially when Israel are trying to take the victim stance.