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06/01/2003 Archived Entry: "As if Iraq didn't have enough problems already."
As if Iraq didn't have enough problems already.
Leave aside the lack of electricity, water, education, medical care, and law enforcement - who's going to take care of the unexploded bombs?
The shocking extent of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by American and British planes, which litter Iraq eight weeks after the conflict, is revealed in detail for the first time today.
The first map based on military intelligence to show the exact location of unexploded anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs and anti-tank mines, obtained by The Observer, shows the vast area of the country which is at danger from live munitions. Experts in clearing conflict zones of unexploded bombs say that millions of Iraqi adults and children are at risk, along with humanitarian aid workers, United Nations personnel, civilian staff and military officials.
Its revelation raises fresh questions for Tony Blair and George Bush, who insisted that post-conflict Iraq would be a safer place than it was under Saddam Hussein.
It also reignites the controversy over the use of cluster bombs by the coalition forces. The map reveals that hundreds, or possibly thousands, of the bombs - which produce hundreds of 'bomblets' scattered out over a large area - failed to detonate.
For a graphic illustration of this problem, click here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Replies: somebody speaks up.
Did I miss something?
All during the war, all I ever heard about were the precision bombing and surgical strikes. It would have lead one to believe that no coalition weapon was ever fired unless a specific target had been identified and pinpointed.
I didn't hear anything about weapons of indiscriminate killing like cluster bombs. You'd think somthing like that would have made the evening news
Posted by TC Mits @ 06/04/2003 02:41 PM NY
