Bye Bye Clusterbomb

[[R-MOD]Bob_Marley]

Linky

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Wednesday that Britain will scrap all cluster bombs in its arsenal, in a bid to break a deadlock at ongoing negotiations in Dublin towards banning the weapons.

"We have decided we will take all our types of cluster bombs out of service," Brown told reporters in London.

So despite fierce opposition from the British military, the government has banned all cluster Munitions from use in combat and all remaining stocks are to be destroyed within 8 years. They may also demand the removal of US cluster munition stocks from British soil.

[Viper5]

Intersting move. I wonder if the US will simply create a huge basement in their embassies/consulates to store the CBUs :P

[Begbie]

Thats great but I doubt they will actually get rid of all of them. Just hide them somewhere deeper into the ground.

Over a hundred nations agreed on the text, Im sure most of them have never seen a cluster bomb in their life and decided to "ban" them.
Great! dont get me wrong but where were the ones that matter? United States, Israel, Russia, China? Nowhere to be seen...

Just to give an example. Israel dropped 4 million cluster bomblets into Lebanon in 2006. An estimated 40% did not explode, thats 1.6 million bombs on the ground!

And not to even mention Laos or Cambodia...

Treaties like these mean nothing unless everyone agrees on them, If even then.

[Top_Cat_AxJnAt]

Originally Posted by Begbie

Treaties like these mean nothing unless everyone agrees on them, If even then.

Thats what i thought until i was told (Channel 4 news 7:00pm tonight) that some Land Mine treaty (im guessing this was just antipersonnel ) in 1990s that was signed by many countries but NOT US, Russian and China, has actually led to US and if not all those other countries that did not sign it, to stop using AP land mines, with only country still using being Burma! I think this is becuase if enough countries sign a treaty such as this, it creates a international standard, that eventually encourages those countries that did not initially sign it, to atleast partly agree to it in the long run, sort of Global pier pressure.

However i just checked wiki and it said the US and many other countries were still manufactoring them, so i am not so sure..........

[Dr2B Rudd]

Originally Posted by Top_Cat_AxJnAt

Thats what i thought until i was told (Channel 4 news 7:00pm tonight) that some Land Mine treaty (im guessing this was just antipersonnel ) in 1990s that was signed by many countries but NOT US, Russian and China, has actually led to US and if not all those other countries that did not sign it, to stop using land mines, with only country still using being Burma! I think this is becuase if enough countries sign a treaty such as this, it creates a international standard, that eventually encourages those countries that did not initially sign it, to atleast partly agree to it in the long run, sort of Global pier pressure.

I believe the US disagreed on the grounds there was no way they could defend South Korea if they couldn't use landmines. IIRC, those mines are still there (good thing too, only way to keep the worlds 4th largest land army OUT)

I always laugh when it takes so long to decommission weaponry, since the administration that agreed to it will probably be voted out before they are done.

[Viper5]

Yeah. I dont see the US using this as cluster bombs and the like would be crucial in any future war against a larger enemy (NKorea, even China in the far future).

[SiN|ScarFace]

It's not like they couldn't procure more if they needed to. I remember all the UXO in Lebanon, crazy stuff.

[$kelet0r]

Just to give an example. Israel dropped 4 million cluster bomblets into Lebanon in 2006. An estimated 40% did not explode, thats 1.6 million bombs on the ground!

That figure screams bullshit - the oft quoted figure is 10% by aid agencies and NGOs and 1% by the manufacturers so the truth is somewhere in between
But c'mon logically think this through Begbie, since when would something that worked only slightly more than half time be used in any walk of life, let alone in a high tech modern and seemingly constantly at war military?

[Begbie]

Originally Posted by $kelet0r

That figure screams bullshit - the oft quoted figure is 10% by aid agencies and NGOs and 1% by the manufacturers so the truth is somewhere in between

Manufacturers? ROFL

BBC NEWS | Middle East | 'Million bomblets' in S Lebanon

Up to a million cluster bomblets discharged by Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah remain unexploded in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.

The UN's mine disposal agency says about 40% of the cluster bombs fired or dropped by Israel failed to detonate - three times the UN's previous estimate.

The failure rate is somewhere between 9-30%. The british ministry of defence has itself admitted that the failure rate of cluster bombs britain used in the Falklands was at least 9.6%

Originally Posted by $kelet0r

But c'mon logically think this through Begbie, since when would something that worked only slightly more than half time be used in any walk of life, let alone in a high tech modern and seemingly constantly at war military?

Because when you drop 4 million of them, 2,5 million is still plenty destruction to go around. And the rest stand as a steady reminder to those on the receiving end.

[agentscar]

That's dumb,cluster bombs are the s**t when used properly...Oh well,what can I/we do...