[jambutty]

Whether you drop one huge bomb or dozens of little ones (cluster bombs) it doesn’t really make any difference providing that they all explode on contact. And that is where the ‘civilian’ issue lies. UXB’s!

During the last war when munitions making wasn’t quite as good as it is today, many bombs were dropped by both sides that didn’t explode, not by design but by accident. These caused more consternation, concern and disruption than one that exploded. I mean that once the bomb has gone boom the situation is done and dusted. But with a UXB the locality has to be cleared and someone has to go and defuse it before it too goes boom. The disruption was enormous.

Then someone had the idea of deliberately dropping bombs with delayed fuses. It was reckoned that at one time that one bomb in five was a delayed bomb because of the effect that an UXB had.

Even with modern manufacturing procedures there is no absolute guarantee that all of the bombs or shells will explode on contact. There will always be some that fail but remain lethal to the unwary.

Unfortunately you cannot un-invent something so if three countries refuse to ban cluster bombs then we were fools to sign up to a treaty banning them.