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Shooting without a target
By Haaretz Editorial

During the final days of the war, when it became clear that the Israel Defense Forces had no solution to the ongoing launchings of Katyusha rockets, a decision was made to "flood" the area with cluster bombs, delivered by artillery shells and rockets. This was non-target specific shooting, based on the assumption that the bomblets would cover a large area, possibly destroy Hezbollah rocket launchers and cause as many casualties as possible among its fighters.

A soldier who fired 155mm artillery shells delivering cluster bombs told Haaretz that he was ordered to "flood" the area with these bombs, without having a specific target. A commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) told Haaretz that his order was to "saturate the area." These statements were published in stories by Meron Rapoport on September 8 and 12. More than a million cluster bomblets were dropped in southern Lebanon. Each M-26 rocket fired by an MLRS contains 644 cluster bomblets, capable of covering an area the size of a football field.

Firing at undefined targets is a problem in and of itself. The dilemma it entails is reflected in statements by soldiers who fired cluster bombs during training and recognized that this type of weapon should be used only in a war against a regular army, for the purpose of hitting arms supply convoys or missile batteries - not against civilian areas. But beyond this dilemma, the committee investigating the war should find out whether anyone considered what would happen to the thousands of cluster bomblets that failed to explode, and were therefore transformed into mines spread throughout southern Lebanon.
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The cluster bomb is not a banned weapon, but it is described as an "indiscriminate" weapon, which should not be used against targets in civilian areas because, inter alia, it continues to kill once the war is over. Since the cease-fire went into effect, 12 Lebanese civilians have been killed by duds that exploded unexpectedly. Since the percentage of unexploded cluster bomblets ranges from 5 to 30 percent, according to various assessments, southern Lebanon is now an area littered by thousands of bomblets that have not yet exploded.

Questions regarding the IDF's conduct during the war have many implications, both moral and practical. Israel's ability to rally international support depends in part on the distinction it makes between innocent civilians and the enemy. While Hamas and Hezbollah attack civilians as part of their strategy, Israel declares that it does not do so, and that it makes an effort to avoid harming civilians. The decision to drop cluster bombs on villages, with no specified targets; the decision to use these bombs over a large area, making it impossible to know in advance who will be there; and the well-known fact that a large percentage of these munitions will not explode on impact, and will therefore be transformed into mines in an area to which civilians will return, are all further testimony to the flawed decision-making of those who managed the war.

Now, Israel can do little except accede to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's request and assist in marking the areas hit by the cluster bombs, so that there will be no further casualties among Lebanese civilians, who have already been hurt by the war. Significant portions of southern Lebanon have now become minefields. Annan's condemnation was not without basis.
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  1.   Thanks for this editorial 10:30  |  Maral 14/09/06
  2.   The strength of an Army depends on its moral convictions 10:36  |  Mario 14/09/06
  3.   IDF Most Moral Army in the World 10:37  |  Will. 14/09/06
  4.   Correction :) 10:43  |  Maral 14/09/06
  5.   To #2 Mario 10:47  |  Colin Wright 14/09/06
  6.   Only states have legitimate violence 10:52  |  Will 14/09/06
  7.   #1 Maral -- I Will Work With You, And You With Me 10:53  |  Yonatan Netser 14/09/06
  8.   Israel a terrorist entity after all? 10:56  |  Ben 14/09/06
  9.   Israel can do little? 10:58  |  LF 14/09/06
  10.   Cluster Bombs to Prevent Resumption of Normal Life 11:00  |  Karim 14/09/06
  11.   Hatred is an infectious diesease 11:03  |  Daniel Leopold 14/09/06
  12.   Israel is a terrorist state par excellence 11:05  |  Khalid 14/09/06
  13.   #8 Daniel 11:18  |  Muoaid-Iraqi in UAE 14/09/06
  14.   Yanatan 11:18  |  Maral 14/09/06
  15.   Fighting Fire With Fire: Cluster Bombs Not Illegal Or Outlawed 11:22  |  Yishai Kohen 14/09/06
  16.   Haaretz 11:22  |  007 14/09/06
  17.   Brave people 11:24  |  Mahj 14/09/06
  18.   Stop using the word `terrorist` fpr Pals and Hezbolah in the 11:27  |  Mark B. 14/09/06
  19.   Evil Monsters 11:27  |  Fletch 14/09/06
  20.   ENDANGERING PEACE KEEPERS 11:31  |  Marilyn 14/09/06
  21.   #20 Marilyn - YOU ARE MEAN 11:54  |  Muoaid-Iraqi in UAE 14/09/06
  22.   Open this idea out 11:59  |  sh 14/09/06
  23.   Mark B in Amsterdam 12:01  |  Laszlo Yarkony 14/09/06
  24.   maral speak 12:04  |  thucydides 14/09/06
  25.   IDF Cowards and killers 12:05  |  ralph 14/09/06
  26.   maral "need coffee" 12:05  |  thucydides 14/09/06
  27.   Yishai Kohen 12:11  |  Maral 14/09/06
  28.   Peace keepers - Marulyn/Australia 12:12  |  Laszlo Yarkony 14/09/06
  29.   Thucydides, my pet... 12:19  |  Maral 14/09/06
  30.   JUST A WAR CRIME AMONG OTHERS 12:36  |  Lebanese 14/09/06
  31.   To Laszlo Yarkony in Israel 12:41  |  Mark B. 14/09/06
  32.   C.WRIGHT.For somebody who has no problems with Hamas charter 12:45  |  PETER SM 14/09/06
  33.   Maral: YOU Post Disinformation 12:55  |  Yishai Kohen 14/09/06
  34.   maral cant help it .you provide cheap entertainment 12:59  |  thucydides 14/09/06
  35.   peter sm 32 12:59  |  potaboc 14/09/06
  36.   Yishai Kohen: total propaganda 13:12  |  Maral 14/09/06
  37.   Thucydides can`t help himself 13:12  |  Maral 14/09/06
  38.   potobac moral morally and moral 13:16  |  zadok the priest 14/09/06
  39.   Rocket Babies 13:17  |  Ronnie Wolman 14/09/06
  40.   Shame on you Israel. 13:23  |  Adel 14/09/06
  41.   There is No 13:34  |  Fletch 14/09/06
  42.   israel and a series of arab revolts 13:35  |  lord acton 14/09/06
  43.   No Maral: Total TRUTH 13:38  |  Yishai Kohen 14/09/06
  44.   To Yishai, from Yesha, not Israel 13:39  |  John 14/09/06
  45.   Do we even know where they landed? 13:40  |  Steph 14/09/06
  46.   To Yishai, from Yesha, not Israel 13:42  |  John 14/09/06
  47.   To Yishai, from Yesha, not Israel 13:44  |  John 14/09/06
  48.   Since when are civilian accomplices of Hizbullah innocent? 13:56  |  Bennie 14/09/06
  49.   Yishai Kohen 13:57  |  Maral 14/09/06
  50.   Ben 13:57  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  51.   To Steph No. 45 - No Not Even Israel Knows Where the Bombs Landed 13:58  |  Karim 14/09/06
  52.   Yishai Kohen, continued... 14:02  |  Maral 14/09/06
  53.   Just another crime 14:05  |  Salam 14/09/06
  54.   Katyushas in schools 14:08  |  Margie from Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  55.   # 41, Fletch 14:16  |  Haitham 14/09/06
  56.   Maral #49 14:17  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  57.   Marilyn - YOU ARE MEAN, BUT REALLY 14:18  |  Third World Jew 14/09/06
  58.   Margie from Tel Aviv 14:20  |  Fletch 14/09/06
  59.   Salam Be ashamed 14:21  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  60.   Fletch 14:22  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  61.   To John 14:31  |  Third World Jew 14/09/06
  62.   To John And Maral From YeShA, Israel 14:31  |  Yishai Kohen 14/09/06
  63.   Margie from Tel Aviv 14:33  |  Fletch 14/09/06
  64.   Marilyn 14:39  |  Justine 14/09/06
  65.   Margie in Tel Aviv, # 59 14:44  |  Salam 14/09/06
  66.   Not merely "flawed decison-making" 14:49  |  Yaakov Sullivan 14/09/06
  67.   Justine 14:50  |  Justicia 14/09/06
  68.   Salaam 14:57  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/09/06
  69.   #56 To Margie in TA 14:58  |  Oetis 14/09/06
  70.   Excellent Editorial 14:59  |  Salam 14/09/06
  71.   The fog of war & colateral damage 15:01  |  Ronald McDonald 14/09/06
  72.   maral "israel targetted everything except hizb" 15:01  |  thucydides 14/09/06
  73.   maral "hizb looks after its own" 15:07  |  thucydides 14/09/06
  74.   Yishai Kohen, human shields and Hizbollah #62 15:13  |  Yaakov Sullivan 14/09/06