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07/24/2005:

"Barbaric But Not Unexpected"

...t is quite a paradox that Blair was the first to infuse the term "barbaric" following the London carnage; a paradox because the barbarism in London had an undeniable kinship with the years of barbarism in Iraq, which continues to unfold in full force.

In May 2003, following protests from human rights groups regarding the British army's use of cluster bombs in and around the Iraqi city of Basra, British officials had nothing but unabashed rationalization as a response.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram justified the use of cluster bombs, in an interview with BBC radio, on military grounds, arguing: "Cluster bombs are not illegal. They are effective weapons. They are used in specific circumstances where there is a threat to our troops."

Those "specific circumstances", according to British media, compelled the dropping of 2,000 Israeli-made cluster bombs on Basra and its surroundings in April 2003 alone. Richard Lloyd, Director of Landmine Action, asserted that he had seen maps - provided to the UN by the US military - showing cities that were almost completely masked by a heap of symbols indicating where cluster bombs had been used. "These weapons were used in and around virtually every built-up area where there was major fighting," Lloyd said.

Hundreds of these bombs are still there, not yet detonated and just waiting to go off among hoards of scavenging children, a dreadful and recurring episode in both Afghanistan and Iraq; utterly barbaric indeed.
Full: commondreams.org