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Israeli Cluster Bombing Ruled Within the Law
Military Ends Probe of Strikes on Lebanon
By Josef Federman
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 25, 2007; A18
JERUSALEM, Dec. 24 -- Israeli military prosecutors have determined that Israel's use of cluster bombs during last year's war in Lebanon did not violate international humanitarian law, the army said Monday, closing an investigation into a practice that has drawn heavy criticism from the United Nations and international human rights groups.
The investigation determined that Israel's use of the weapons, which open in flight and scatter dozens of bomblets, was a "concrete military necessity." No legal action would be taken against anyone in connection with use of the weapons, it said.
. . . Whenever using cluster bombs, Israeli forces were "respecting the laws of armed conflict . . . and preserving the ethical values" of the Israeli military, the statement said.
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Well, there are all kinds of 'ethical values' out there in the world of military hardware.
Those who haven't a state behind them or who were not at one time allies of convenience to America, may not have 'daisy cutters' available to them. So, they use box-cutters instead of daisy-cutters and are accused of crimes against humanity.
Which I agree with.
Except that there are many definitions of war crimes and war criminals. Like the recording of history, these definitions are usually in the hands of the winners. Thus, the fire-bombing of Dresden (a blatantly civilian target with no military significance) is not a war crime and becomes merely a matter of whose written history it belongs to.
Kurt Vonnegut built a writing career out of that anomaly.
