Joint letter to protest the use of cluster bombs in Syria

With the advent of ever improving technology, weaponry on the battlefield has become more and more effective at completing missions without the collateral damage, and the loss of civilian life. There was, however, a point when warfare was cruder and led to the loss of many innocent lives, and the weapon that led to such situation was the cluster bomb. Such weapon explodes and releases fragments to allow for a greater explosion radius, because those same fragments that go flying from the main body of the bomb are, themselves, explosives. The danger arises when those fragments don't experience the necessary force to cause their explosion. Thus, these fragments get embedded in the ground and when that ground is built over, the dropping of a plate could easily set of the bomb. This leads to the matter of the article, where the Japanese Ambassador is asking that Syria end their use of cluster bombs because of the danger it poses to civilians, and the children of Syria which the ambassador points out. I really enjoyed the fact that the ambassador spoke from the point of view from the people of Japan that added a familial tone to the letter, and encouraged the Syrian government to end their use of cluster bombs. By appealing with both facts and emotion, I think the letter should be effective and work on the Syrian government. I personally feel that cluster bomb use should never be allowed to continue even if the explosion of every fragment was guaranteed. The wider blast radius puts more people at risk in both the short and long term. I don’t believe that war is bad, but I do believe in a separation of war and peace time, and cluster bombs are in direct opposition to that idea.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/joint-letter-protest-use-cluster-bombs-syria