Other recent findings confirm that Israel may have dropped as many as 60 percent of the cluster bombs it used in the latest conflict in the 72 hours immediately before the cease-fire. Military analysts on the ground offer two explanations.

First, sheer frustration, hatred, and rage by Israel’s leadership and its obsession with punishing Lebanon for its more than 85 percent support (including Lebanon’s middle class and Christian citizens) for Hizbullah’s resistance to Israel’s attempted reoccupation up to the Litani River.

Second, a desire by Israel to get rid of as much of its US cluster-bomb inventory as possible, which the Pentagon has stipulated must be reduced to a lower level before Israel can reorder newer models like the M-26. This is why the 33-year-old CBU-58, almost extinct, was used so widely. Israel was cleaning out its CBU closet for new orders, one Lebanese Army source reported. (more…)

Other recent findings confirm that Israel may have dropped as many as 60 percent of the cluster bombs it used in the latest conflict in the 72 hours immediately before the cease-fire. Military analysts on the ground offer two explanations.

First, sheer frustration, hatred, and rage by Israel’s leadership and its obsession with punishing Lebanon for its more than 85 percent support (including Lebanon’s middle class and Christian citizens) for Hizbullah’s resistance to Israel’s attempted reoccupation up to the Litani River.

Second, a desire by Israel to get rid of as much of its US cluster-bomb inventory as possible, which the Pentagon has stipulated must be reduced to a lower level before Israel can reorder newer models like the M-26. This is why the 33-year-old CBU-58, almost extinct, was used so widely. Israel was cleaning out its CBU closet for new orders, one Lebanese Army source reported. (more…)