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September 27, 2006
Westhawk on Cluster Bombs
Westhawk argues that the Israelis may have intentionally seeded southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the end of the Israeli-Hezbollah war in order to deny the area for human habitation, thereby frustrating the attempts of Hezbollah to reestablish itself in the same places after the war's end:
If Israel really did leave a million unexploded bomblets in south Lebanon, the purpose was to thwart all of these Hezbollah sustainment requirements. Israel persuaded much of the population in south Lebanon to leave the area during the fighting. The cluster bombs are there to discourage its return. The Israeli government must also hope that the cluster bombs disrupt the rebuilding of south Lebanon’s infrastructure, and the restarting of commerce in the area. If Lebanon’s Shi’ites, Hezbollah’s base of support, must spend all of their energy on basic survival, there should be less time and energy remaining to support the Hezbollah militia. And if the Hezbollah organization must spend its Iranian funding keeping its civilian support base fed and sheltered, presumably there will be fewer funds remaining for rocket systems, guided missiles, and night vision equipment for the militia.I wonder what kinds of cluster muntitions the Israelis used. Artillery-fired anti-tank or anti-personnel mines sort of self-deploy on impact, but have a very high dud rate. These one would never want to put in an area where one's own forces might reoccupy in the conceivable future. On the other hand, my understanding of air-dropped cluster munitions is that they are not meant to be persistent, but to eviscerate area targets on impact. There was much controversy about these in the beginning of the Afghan campaign because the parachutes that the bomblets use to guide themselves are colored yellow, the same as the humanitarian rations that the US was dropping. So when the bomblets were duds, they unduly encouraged human attention.
Westhawk sums up:
Israel has clearly shifted to a “bottom-up” strategy in Gaza and south Lebanon. The Israeli government is now making life as miserable as a hostile media will allow it for the common people in those places. The Israelis hope to convince the enemy populations to compel their leaders to change their anti-Israeli policies. And if that fails, then perhaps a broken, impoverished, and starving enemy will result in a weakened military opponent. This is what results when every other tactic has been tried.Indeed, this is the 21st century equivalent of salting the ashes of Carthage.
Posted by Chester at September 27, 2006 7:51 PM
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