Maine Owl

The country that thinks of using cluster munitions next week should think twice, because it would look very bad.

--Espen Barth Eide, deputy defense minister of Norway

Damn straight. (Thanks, Rodger)

These maniacal munitions are responsible for untold civilian harm. I'm amazed at the mockery some American commentators have leveled against the anti-cluster-bomb treaty agreed to by 111 nations in Dublin Friday. American military analyst John Pike, for example, acused the signatories of being "countries which do not fight wars" and of making him "want to barf." I think the point here, contrary to Pike's notions, is that countries are sick to death of the wars and military tactics the U.S. and Israel have found, in the words of a U.S. State Department spokesman, so "absolutely critical and essential."

Boycotters of the treaty include Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and the United States. This forms a pretty good list of the world's rouge military powers. For example, Israel found it critical and essential to sew "500,000 unexploded munitions on the ground in Lebanon" at the end of its summer 2006 bombardment campaign--an action regarded widely as "immoral." Can it be so hard for American and Israeli military strategists who use these evil devices to see why they look "bad"?