Really sad article in the New York Times about a soldier maimed in Iraq from collecting unexploded ordnance, i.e., undetonated cluster bomblets. One of the major problems with cluster bombs is just that a lot of them hit the ground and don't explode, and then get picked up by kids or soldiers later on and explode on them, often maiming or killing horrifically. And yet we're still using them. Sam Ross wasn't injured in a fight with Iraqi militants: he was brutally injured by our own bombs, and - good grief - if that's not an an argument to stop using cluster bombs I don't know what is.
"The story of Sam Ross has the makings of a ballad, with its heart-rending arc from hardscrabble childhood to decorated war hero to hardscrabble adulthood. His effort to create a future for himself by enlisting in the Army exploded in the desert during a munitions disposal operation in Baghdad. He was 20."
Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home @ NYTimes.com
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