This is unacceptable.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082501298.html?referrer=email


This link might not function since you're supposed to have a (free) subscription to the Washington Post to read the article, but you should try to find out abt. this incident some other way if this doesn't work. As you probably know, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians have been returning to what is left of their homes following the cease fire agreement b/t Israel and Hezbollah. As you may or may not know, these same innocent civilians continue to fear for their lives and to daily be in harm's way due to the presence of mines and other unexploded ordnance left behind after the conflict. (And yes, I mean innocent civilians -- women, children, Christians, and other ppl. who are most definitely not part of the Hezbollah militia.) Although many mines are left fr. the days of Israeli occupation during and following Lebanon's civil war and were planted by both Israel and Hezbollah, the greatest danger today comes from unexploded ordnance lobbed at residential areas by the Israelis in this most recent conflict.

Targeting civilian areas is a clear violation of international law, to say nothg. of simple decency. And for those of you who want to come back w/that tired old "terrorists target civilians, too" argument, don't bother -- you will never convince me that it is somehow okay to use the v. tactics we decry simply b/c the opposing side resorts to such barbarity. So save your breath/carpal tunnels and my blood pressure. Perhaps worst of all, however, is that it is now apparent that Israel launched cluster bombs -- to me, the most reprehensible weapon in the modern arsenal, next to nuclear weapons -- into neighborhoods, markets, and other non-combatant areas, leaving behind countless numbers of unexploded "bomblets", the small but powerful spawn of the larger explosive projectile. Literally thousands of civilians in Iraq have been injured or killed by these tiny vessels of violence (courtesy of the U.S. miltary) and now the same pattern is emerging in Lebanon as unwitting civilians encounter the bobmlets as they try to clear the rubble of what was their lives in order to rebuild. Most tragically, however, is that children seem to be the most frequent victims of this particular device. Since kids are stupid, er, "innocent", they often mistake the bomblet for a ball, turning what should be a game of catch -- a reprieve fr. the destruction and loss around these children -- into a nightmare, as happened in the article I linked above. Normally I would say smthg. abt. how parents should keep an eye on their kids, but these parents are a little distracted by the whole there's-a-bulldozer-where-my-house-should-be situation, so I'm inclined to go a little easier on them than usual. The ppl. who should really be held responsible are the Israelis, who knowingly assaulted areas that should have been off-limits w/the artillery equivalent of herpes (it's the gift that keeps on giving!).

Oh, in case this wasn't disgusting enough, at least three varieties of the cluster bombs used by the Israelis are Made in the USA.

Since I'm fairly new to this whole having a heart position, I don't have many suggestions for what can be done by each of us individually, but it can only help to spread awareness of these egregious acts, so that's what I'm doing. See Jennifer, my favorite Canadienne, for better-informed advice.