It's a big day for the peace movement today as 100-nations meet in Geneva to sign an international disarmament treaty banning the use, manufacture, storage or transfer of cluster bomb weapons.
Even reclusive Laos - which could be the poster child for the campaign - has emerged to sign on. Tiny little Laos is the most heavily bombed country on the planet. Given that bombing didn't really get rolling until WWII, you have to wonder who Laos went to war with to get bombed so badly. The answer is no one. The United States used high-explosive bombs, cluster bombs and aerial land mines on Laos to try to stop North Vietnamese forces heading south into South Vietnam. It was a game try but, as you might recall, it didn't work.
The Laotian countryside was littered with mines and cluster bombs (some 260-million were dropped) that still kill today. Now you would think that someone who made that sort of mess would go in afterward and clean it up, right? Forget it. It's sort of like the Agent Orange contaminated regions of Vietnam that could continue causing hideous birth defects and premature deaths for another six centuries. Oopsie. And the verdict is still not in on those vast regions contaminated with depleted uranium weaponry either.
But cluster bomb makers needn't worry too much. The United States, China and Russia have said no to the ban along with South Korea, India and Pakistan. In other words, those most likely to use the weapons won't be giving them up anytime soon.
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