Out of sight, Out of mind...

It's often claimed that the government doesn't really give a damn. Sure, it might act like it does and present a specious image of caring for the public, looking out for the nation's best interests, trying to spread ideas of equality, but if you stop to look at the bigger picture, it soon becomes apparent that the people in charge are just a bunch of apathetic dweebs as ready-for-bed as the next fella. And that's just a response to its home office policy.

When it comes to foreign affairs the rain begins to fall even more heavily, especially concerning the treatment of the war torn nations in which we've played a card or two in the dismantling of. Take Iraq, Kuwait, Serbia and Kosovo, for example. Admissions made by the government today show that the UK armed forces has left a number of 'cluster weapons' floating about the towns and cities of these countries, all of which are a danger to civilians, and all of which could go off at any time. How many of these weapons have we left floating about? Well, that's the problem, isn't it? Nobody really knows...

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, summed things up quite nicely: "These weapons have a terrible legacy, yet the government appears to have no idea how many it has used and how many have been made safe. It is incredible the government cannot even provide an estimate as to the nature of the threat."

Whoops! Shouldn't somebody have been accounting for the finer points of war? We know they say that war is hell but it doesn't have to be managed incompetently as well.

The admission, uncovered by the Guardian, comes at a time when the banning of cluster bombs is a hot topic on the political scene, mainly due to the indiscriminating and controversial ways in which the bombs explode over a wide area and are not particularly picky about whom they land upon. According to human rights groups the weapons caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system - especially children.

Photo: Flickr

Written by Oli Anderson on 27 May 2008 12:16 PM. Permalink