U.S. says it has removed 50,000 unexploded bombs in Lebanon

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'aretz (emphasis mine):

The United States has helped remove more than 50,000 unexploded bombs in southern Lebanon since the end of the war last August with Israel, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The U.S. government's aid chief, Randall Tobias, said unexploded bombs remained a major problem in Lebanon where Israel dropped many thousands of cluster bombs. Many of those bombs are reported to be U.S.-made.

--snip--

The State Department is investigating whether Israel violated U.S. rules in its use of U.S.-made rockets armed with cluster bombs in Lebanon. A State Department spokesman said the investigation was ongoing.

--snip--

The United States promised about e250 million in aid for Lebanon following the war and Tobias said about $100 million had been spent so far.

He said Washington was involved in building bridges and in trying to clean up after an oil spill during the war that marred parts of Lebanon's coastline and hit the fishing industry hard.

PB

[pocoloco]

1. Hard to comprehend 50,000 unexploded bombs.

Wonder how many were dropped to have that many duds? Surely this number is incorrect?

[thingfisher]

4. Maybe Uncle Sam

is dumping bombs that didn't pass Quality Assurance on its old reliable ally rather than taking a loss? If not I shudder to think how much more suffering 50,000 MORE bombs could have inflicted on the Lebanese.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Doesn't appear to be: UN as of August had identified 100,000 UXO

In this case, UXO (UneXploded Ordinance) refers to cluster munitions). UN denounces Israel cluster bombs

PB

[wakeme2008]

2. WTF!!!!! The State Department is "investigating"

You just said you have recovered 50,000 bombs..... Did the Bomb Fairy put them there..... :grr:

[saigon68]

16. Mostly bomblets from CBU-24s etc.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/cbu-24.htm

[superconnected]

3. highly unlikely.

And yeah, who put them there if there were 50k bombs.

[Scurrilous]

6. Israel opted for cheaper, unsafe cluster bombs in Lebanon war

<snip>

"During the second Lebanon war, Israel made use of American-made cluster bombs that left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets, even though Israel Military Industries produces cluster bombs that leave nearly no unexploded munitions. The main reason for the use of the U.S.-made weapons: Israel uses military aid funds to purchase cluster bombs from the U.S., and in order to buy IMI-made bombs, the Israel Defense Forces would have to dip into its own budget.

"The consideration is budgetary," a defense related source said. However, each IMI-made cluster bomblet costs a mere $10.

The cluster bombs constitute the number one humanitarian problem facing Lebanon after the war because many of the bomblets remain unexploded and as duds, they have turned into make-shift mines, converting towns, villages and fields into undeclared minefields. Since the cease-fire went into effect on August 14, at least 14 civilians, including many children, have been killed by the unexploded bomblets."

more

[Jokinomx]

7. According to Time Magazine.... Israel dropped 1,000,000 bombs

I read this in the Oct 8th issue....


So.. finding 50,000 is just a drop in the bucket on the numbers that are actually there.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1543921,00.html

>snip<

1 million Number of unexploded cluster bombs in southern Lebanon, which were dropped by Israel during its August war with Hizballah

650,000 Number of people who live in southern Lebanon

>snip<

[LynnTheDem]

8. But all were terrorists.

Every human living in southern Lebanon. Bad evil guys.

Series!!11!1

[praeclarus]

9. a world gone mad...

So the Israeli army does not buy cluster bombs
from Israeli cluster bomb makers because they'd
have to spend their own money.

Instead the use aid money given by USA to buy
USA made cluster bombs.

So there you go... your tax dollars wind up
in the arms dealers pockets and help in cluster
bombing the living shit out of Lebanon.

[frylock]

15. makes one real proud, doesn't it?

[mom cat]

19. I am not holding my breath for the US to denounce Israel for using

the cluster bonbs that we sent them. Did we just send then to Isreal for them to put on a trophy shelf or to use.
We need to investigate what type of armements we are sending all over the world.

[soothsayer]

10. We don't remove them to be nice, we remove them to keep the

enemy from using them against us (done sooooo effectively in Viet Nam) and also to figger out how to get all of 'em to blow up next time. FYI.

[soothsayer]

11. We don't remove them to be nice, we remove them to keep the

enemy from using them against us (done sooooo effectively in Viet Nam) and also to figger out how to get all of 'em to blow up next time. FYI.

[soothsayer]

12. We don't remove them to be nice, we remove them to keep the

enemy from using them against us (done sooooo effectively in Viet Nam) and also to figger out how to get all of 'em to blow up next time. FYI.

[soothsayer]

13. We don't remove them to be nice, we remove them to keep the

enemy from using them against us (done sooooo effectively in Viet Nam) and also to figger out how to get all of 'em to blow up next time. FYI.

[soothsayer]

14. We don't remove them to be nice, we remove them to keep the

enemy from using them against us (done sooooo effectively in Viet Nam) and also to figger out how to get all of 'em to blow up next time. FYI.

[TheMadMonk]

17. I have ot wonder if the failure rate might not be deliberate.

Given how touchy these things are after they fail to go off, having been scattered by an explosive charge and then impacting with the ground, one wonders if all those "duds" might in fact be for the specific purpose of area denial. Something of an end run around the international prohibition against anti-personnel land mines.

[bidiboom]

21. There are thousands of landmines in South Lebanon

left over from the previous war. Israel is refusing to hand over the maps so they can be removed.

[lumpy]

22. Thanks for the reminder about the maps.

Looks like Israel needs a buffer zone peppered with landmines and cluster bombs? "Watch where you step, children".

[progressoid]

18. 50K? That's all?

Even if fighting stops in the area :crazy: the removal of these will go on for decades. Hell, 60 years after WWII they are still removing undetonated shells and mortars in Europe.

[phusion]

20. How many children

will die over the next 20-40 years when discovering one of these bombs?

It's a good thing Israel went after these "terrorists"!