“Looking at the effects in counter-insurgencies of a near-total ban on cluster munitions as regards battlefield tactics, the ban would, if anything, help the effort of U.S. commanders. Since counter-insurgency is an effort to win hearts and minds, a commander who even considers resort to cluster munitions in a built-up area (where insurgent meets counter-insurgent in the contest to control or at least influence the population’s allegiance) has already lost the battle and probably the ‘war’.” -Col. Dan Smith, U.S. Army (ret.), West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, and Senior Fellow on Military Affairs for the Friends Committee on National Legislation |
“The abundance of unexploded submunitions also left a dangerous mess for U.S. soldiers advancing into Baghdad. Troops from the 101st Airborne found themselves in Baghdad's al-Jihad neighborhood in mid-April, contending with hundreds of unexploded M42 cluster bomblets. ‘There were M42s all around the houses,’ says Maj. Mike Getchell, 37, of Bridgewater, Mass., executive officer of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade.” -USA Today, 12/11/2003, “Cluster bombs kill in Iraq, even after shooting ends”, by Paul Wiseman. |
“The military has not said how many troops have been killed or injured by unexploded grenades. But the 1991 Gulf War revealed their danger. A congressional report found that grenade duds killed 22 U.S. troops -- 6 percent of the total American fatalities -- and injured 58 as forces swept the Iraqi military out of areas in Kuwait's desert that the Americans had just shelled. The Army said in a post-war report that ‘the large number of dud U.S. submunitions ... significantly impeded operations.’” - Associated Press,“Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades”, 6-23-03, by Thomas Frank |
“‘This is a very serious matter,’ MK Cohen [a reservist colonel] said. ‘If cluster bombs were used in populated areas, this constitutes an indescribable crime. There is no target that cannot be hit without cluster bombs. The massive use by the IDF of cluster bombs during the war suggests an absolute loss of control and hysteria.’” -By Nir Hasson and Meron Rapoport, Haaretz correspondents |