Let us hasten to reassure you. The bombs of the title are only virtual bombs. But they're a good way to visualize the lethality of child-killing cluster bomb munitions, which will be an increasingly visible issue as this year goes by.
Cluster munitions are a particularly nasty form of weaponry that leaves thousands of unexploded little bomblets behind. They look like toys to children, who pick them up with tragic results, and they are scattered over a wide area. To see what the pattern of bomblets over your own area would be, go to this Web site maintained by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby. Choose one of two types of cluster munitions, enter your street address, and click Go. You'll get a map showing you what the typical dispersion of the bomblets would be in your neighborhood. It's a chilling exercise.
These bomblets remain dangerous for decades. One example: The United States last dropped cluster bombs in Laos in 1973. In the 35 years since then, 12,000 civilians there have been either injured or killed by cluster bombs. Many of the victims had not even been born when the bomblets fell. Over the past decade, our nation has also used cluster bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. The FCNL Web site also offers a video testimony by a woman whose son served in the U.S. military in Iraq and died when one of them exploded.
So there's a broad international movement to ban the use of cluster bombs that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. Sadly, the United States government is not taking part in this movement and is not expected to be at an international meeting next week in Dublin, where the treaty's language will be completed. There's now a temporary ban on the export of cluster bombs from the United States, but a more permanent solution is needed: In both houses of Congress, legislation is slowly moving forward to ban the use of these weapons near civilian areas. The Senate bill is S. 594. In the House, it's H.R. 1755.
This is outmoded Cold War weaponry that can't be of any real use in today's insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare, fought in and around civilian areas. It's time to get rid of it.