quote:
Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:
Oh for ■■■■'s sake!
You're telling me the bombs and the food packages are the same colour ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!
And you're just calling this a horrible coincidence?
This is foul.
Why on EARTH is America using CLUSTER BOMBS in the first place?!!! They are totally inappropriate given the civilian popluation - ■■■■■■■ landmine type weapons AGAIN - WILL THE DAMN HUMAN RACE NEVER LEARN??!!
Stop using cluser bombs - or repackage the food. Preferably both!
Better yet, stop bombing so convoy aid (far more nutritious effective than these ridiculous junk food airline meals - giving peanut butter and jelly to starving people - who ARE the people who thought this one up, for god's sake, get REAL!!! ) can get to where it needs to go. Today I have read yet more descriptions of the starving Afghanis, some of whom are now enduring flood conditions, from British journalists who are there looking on. So they aren't just starving, they're cold, soaking wet and starving.
Thousands are dying from starvation and cold. It is beginning to get really cold there now. Thousands and thousands more will die..... Must be just great - bombs above, no food, and your arse is freezing to death. Not just a figure of speech here, I'm talking literally.
Tragic, horrible, deplorable coincidence. Many adjectives fit, but none truly describe it, I agree, but it wasn't done on purpose. The reason for brightly coloring the cluster bomb packets is so the ones that don't explode on impact (as they're suppose to) can be easily recogized and, theoretically, avoided. This is done to follow UN rules.
Cluster bombs are used against soft targets. That does means people, but also light vehicles, etc. They are not intended to be dropped on civilians or in civilian areas. They are used against military formations, transports and airfields. Based on what I've seen, and read there have been none dropped in cities or on civilian targets. These are not the, often reported, bombs that go astray and hit the wrong targets. Again, they are brightly colored to protect civilians and in keeping with UN rules. These are not designed to be landmines, or like landmines at all. Afghanistan has the largest amount of landmines, per square mile, of any country in the world, and certainly doesn't need any more.
The food packets are brightly colored so they can be easily identifed, and retrieved. The use of the same color was asinine, but unintentional. Regardless, the loss of innocent life is incredibly sad, even more so because they may have been killed through a method we intended to protect life. There would be no benefit and serious repercussions from purposely killing innocents in this way.
Once the problem was identified, they began to drop leaflets, in the appropriate language, describing the problem, and
yes the color of the food packets has been changed.
The conditions of the refuges is horrible, but it's not entirely due to the bombing(although it doesn't help). Afghan refuges have been living in deplorable conditions for years. I continue to believe that by removing the Taliban and terrorist element, Afghanistan will have the opportunity for a government that, literally, cares for it's people. The Afghan people aren't suddenly starving and miserable because of four weeks of bombing; they've been starving and miserable for years because their own leaders don't care about innocent civilians, even their own.
