this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
164 points (97.1% liked)
news
804 readers
1236 users here now
A lightweight news hub to help decentralize the fediverse load: mirror and discuss headlines here so the giant instance communities aren’t a single choke-point.
Rules:
- Recent news articles only (past 30 days)
- Title must match the headline or neutrally describe the content
- Avoid duplicates & spam (search before posting; batch minor updates).
- Be civil; no hate or personal attacks.
- No link shorteners
- No entire article in the post body
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Cluster bombs are already a war crime because they by default will hit civilians, aren’t they? So of course we developed better ones, so we can be environmentally friendly while we kill civilians!
Targeting civilians is a war crime no matter the weapons platform used.
The use of cluster munitions is not illegal, as none of the parties here are signatories to the international treaties prohibiting their use.
They are designed as anti-material weapons, whereas a regular cruise or ballistic missile might blow up a building, these are meant to destroy equipment and kill personnel over a wider area.
Their negative connotations come from the weapons mechanism which is releasing miniature bomblets over the targeted area. Some of which have been known to fail to detonate immediately, and subsequently kill or maime civilians who come across them later.
And to be 100% sure, a second missile is sent to kill the civilians who gathered to rescue the first victims.