-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- >>>And here we read about the problems with power projection and, most specifically, unintended collateral injuries to those who are swept away with the undertow following the crashing wave of bombings of their air and land 'space'. What's really of interest is Bill Jeff's nationally televised entreaty to those who are empowered to deny Americans their right to bear arms (and self-defense) (the Congress, i.e.) by using the recent killing of a six-year-old in Michigan. Bill Jeff made my jaw go slack when he strongly asserted that a child-proof trigger lock would have prevented this event from occuring, ignoring the stubborn fact that the child who fired the deadly round obtained the weapon from his 'residence', a 'home-business', the main focus of which was commerce in the trade of drugs and stolen goods. Now, why would a drug dealer be intent on ensuring that a weapon (stolen?) in a drug den be made 'child-proof'? This defies logic. The irony is that the dealer may have had the gun to protect his home and business. This echoes the old NRA warning of when they outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Honest citizens may comply but the crooks get away with whatever they want. (Time to reverse roles, I say: let the honest ones alone and go after the crooks.) So now we have the SAME Bill Jeff NOT being concerned about even far more deadly devices, namely cluster bombs, that he ordered delivered. These are being 'played' with by youngsters of a 'nation' that NEATO attempted to 'save' from 'heinous' aggression by its own government. We do not hear anything about 'child-proof fuse/detonation locks' on cluster bombs to be required by NEATO combatants; now, we can read about the deemphasis on eliminating the littered devices altogether. Soon, we may read about how many youngster farmers being ... well, we get the idea ... during their future planting, tending and harvesting seasons ... unless they forego the idea of growing food and eating and surviving by setting in their lounge chairs by the roadside to wait for the UN pizza deliveries. Out of sight, out of mind? Or, just out of mind, specifically ones' own? A<>E<>R <<< {{<Begin>}} FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum" [ Last | Latest Posts | Latest Articles | Self Search | Add Bookmark | Post | Abuse | Help! ] Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. Death Waits in the Fields: US Won't Clean Up Cluster Bombs Foreign Affairs News Source: Guardian (UK) Published: 3/14/00 Author: Jonathan Steele Posted on 03/13/2000 20:06:25 PST by Antiwar Republican Death lurks in the fields Unexploded bombs: Kosovo tries to clean up after air strikes Kosovo: special report Jonathan Steele in Pristina Tuesday March 14, 2000 The US is refusing to allow American troops to remove the thousands of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Nato planes on Kosovo last year. As the snows melt and the first planting season since the Nato air strikes approaches, Albanian and international officials fear that the death toll from bomb casualties will rise as farmers start to plough, children play in the fields and people go into the woods to collect timber for cooking. Cluster bombs are far more deadly than landmines and around 10% failed to explode. But for fear of the "bodybag syndrome", whereby the bodies of US casualties are returned home in bags, the Pentagon has ruled that it will not order its professional disposal experts to defuse them. The job is being dumped on underfunded civilian teams, largely staffed by Albanians. Each cluster bomb unit contains up to 200 weapons the size of a tennis ball canister. The unit opens up at about 2,000ft, unleashing a hail of the bomb canisters that swamp an area the size of four football pitches with lethal shrapnel. Designed as an anti-tank weapon, each bomb can also penetrate five inches of steel. During the Kosovo war, US and British pilots were under orders to drop them from above 15,000ft to keep their aircraft safe from enemy fire. Hundreds of the bombs missed their targets. "Nato gave us information about where they thought they dropped them. These were detailed grid references, but many turned out not to be correct," says John Flanagan, a colonel from New Zealand, who heads the UN's mine action coordination centre in Kosovo. "They may have intended to drop six bombs on one target and four go off somewhere else, as much as one kilometre from the intended spot." The UN coordinates the work of several civilian demining teams. As well as falling wide, about 28,000 of the deadly canisters failed to explode. If they stay on the surface and can be seen, they can be detonated by putting an explosive charge beside them. But most go through the soil and are lying between 10cm and 20cm underground, ready to blast a tractor or a person who steps on one. When hidden, they are far harder to detect and dispose of than ordinary landmines. "Nato doesn't want to create a precedent for cleaning up in post-conflict situations. They first made this clear in the Gulf war. [The Gulf war cleanup] cost $700m, but luckily the Kuwaitis could pay," Col Flanagan says. Kosovo, by contrast, is poor and much more heavily populated than the Kuwaiti desert. "My personal opinion is that if they're going to use these kinds of weapons, they have to recognise there is a postwar environmental effect," he adds. Traditional landmines are mainly used to defend fixed sites, and armies usually keep records of where they are laid so that they can be lifted later. Cluster bombs are attack weapons and inaccurate. Since June, 54 people have already been killed by mines or cluster bombs in Kosovo; another 250 have been maimed. In the worst cluster-bomb accident, four children died near Gnjilane and one was seriously hurt when they threw a stone at the yellow canister lying in a field. Only 30% of Kosovo's arable land was used last year because most refugees came back too late to plough. This year, however, mine casualties are expected to rise in spite of efforts to make people aware of the dangers lurking in their fields. K-For, the Nato-led international peace force, says it will lift mines and unexploded cluster bombs only if they obstruct its mission to provide security; in practice, this means those found on main roads or near K-For bases and buildings. The non-governmental organisations' (NGO) disposal teams have destroyed 2,743 bombs so far, but that still leaves over 25,000. The US government and other Nato partners are paying for some of the NGO work, but every contract requires time-consuming lobbying and pleading for funds. It would be easier to use the Pentagon's trained weapons disposal teams, but cowardice among politicians and the consequences of casualties even in a volunteer army appear to preclude it. Tomorrow: Jonathan Steele on the bureaucratic nightmare in Kosovo {{<End>}} A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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