WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.
The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.
This will, of course, be a toothless investigation with no repercussions for Israel.
What is
Several current and former officials said that they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but that the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel’s military operations.
1. Cluster bombs kill and maim people in a very ugly way.
2. The US sold Israel cluster bombs.
3. The IDF used those cluster bombs to help decimate Lebanon during which hundreds of civilians were killed, wounded and displaced.
4. Bushco thinks that as long as it says Israel violated some secret agreement by using the NYT to leak this propaganda, the world - and most especially those opposed to the US military machine - will now let the US off the hook.
5. Bushco is deranged.
6. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results:
A Congressional investigation after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that Israel had used the weapons against civilian areas in violation of the agreements. In response, the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on further sales of cluster weapons to Israel.
Newflash, Bushco: There are still many people in the Middle East who hate America and it's not because of its so-called "freedoms".
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