Israeli: No Order Given for Cluster Bomb

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 19, 2006

JERUSALEM -- Israel's army chief charged Sunday that his ground forces used cluster bombs against orders in Lebanon during the summer war, defense officials said.

Israel has come under harsh criticism for using cluster bombs in Lebanon. The bombs are not prohibited under international law but are not to be used in civilian areas and Israel has said it used its munitions in accordance with international human rights law.

Defense officials said Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz gave orders to shelve the lethal munitions, which spread hundreds of small bomblets around an area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give details to reporters.

They said the air force followed the orders, but ground forces fired thousands of cluster bombs into Lebanon toward the end of the 34-day conflict which left more than 1,000 dead on both sides of the border.

Army Radio reported Halutz appointed a general to investigate the use of the weapons.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-israel-lebanon,0,4785806.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[Kagemusha]

1. What the hell?...

Normally, armies would far rather be seen as heartless and cruel than as insubordinate. This is supposed to be a defense?

I thought they simply declared everywhere they fired to no longer be a civilian area (whether it had been prior to the conflict or not) and it was bombs away, and they said it was perfectly legal. So what gives?

Countdown to move to I/P: 3... 2... 1...

[Zhade]

2. "War Crimes Chief Lies, Fools Buy It"

NT!

[Solo_in_MD]

7. Cluster bombs are not prima facie a war crime

[bunyip]

3. As if.

Hmm, think I'll fire off some cluster-bombs next weekend. Or perhaps a tactical nuke.

No-one will ask any questions, will they?

They'll be no "hey soldier, what the f-ck do you think you're doing"?
No "who authorised that fire mission"?

:mad:


How stupid do the Israelis think we are?

Using a weapon system requires orders from above.
Using an expensive weapon system requires orders from the top.

[Poll_Blind]

4. This appears to be an outright lie. There are many pictures of...

...the cluster bomblets and sometimes full bomb cases which were air-dropped on Lebanon. Like this one:

?click

A different angle is in this story from the BBC. There are also other photos, and bigger photos of these air-dropped munitions. This has been written on extensively by the BBC, among others, which even indicate which models of air-dropped bombs were used.

To insinuate that Israel didn't use air-dropped cluster munitions is, simply, factually untrue based on the evidence. Of course, it's either quibbling or blame-pointing- cluster bombs, bombs which contain a large number of smaller bombs used for area denial, were used in large numbers by Israel during their attack on Lebanon.

PB

[EFerrari]

5. Wtf?

"How did those solidiers get those cluster bombs? Why, I --"

:wtf:

[Lilith Velkor]

6. There musta been an order for Cluster Bullshit!

:eyes:



:rofl: :cry:

[parkia00]

8. Pushing the Blame

Maybe getting a little heated up and then pushing the blame to others down the chain of command. We didn't do it. They did and didn't tell us. Bad troops bad!