Cluster bombs are internationally banned weapons that kill and cripple soldiers, farmers, children and anyone trapped in war zones. Teams of women in Laos 40 years after the Vietnam War are still detonating what started out as thousands of unexploded bomblets loaded with shrapnel from larger bombs along the Ho Chi Mingh trail. The carpet bombing of Laos has been the longest period of munitions dropped on humanity and Earth in the history of the world. Cambodia also suffered from additional weaponry.
Countries continuing to use deadly cluster bombs illegally include the United States, Israel, Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, China and Russia. And where were most of these cluster bombs manufactured by corporate nations of war economies?
For decades these silent killers lie dormant in war zones and near urban streets. Often they are found by children who die or lose arms and legs. Youths have been victims of religious warrior vultures ever since faith-based fearful people built alters where scapegoat kids, both human and animal, were sacrificed as burnt offerings to imagined gods and superstition. The Inquisition and bloody Crusades (meaning cross-bearing) followed in succeeding centuries, as well as endless wars of futility.
Youths continue to be slaughtered on battlefield alters by leaders ordering them to do the dirty work out of lust for foreign land and natural resources. Colorful ribbons and medals can never replace loved ones.
To many parents, families and friends of the victims the awards in the aftermath are not worth the Pyrrhic cost of lives. We all grieve in anguish over decades of aggression in our own lifetimes–thousands of combat soldiers as we witness real reality TV–clouds of black smoke and toxic emissions of war.
I'll be back to my blog next week–"lord willing and if the creek don't rise"–as they say in western Pennsylvania.
Mame
helenesmith1.blog spot.com
www.macdonaldsward.com
Advocate for children and youths
