Hightower Lowdown

Wars tend to be run by smart people doing stupid things.

Take the gross stupidity of cluster bombs, which America's political and military leaders embrace as an effective weapon of warfare.

A cluster bomb has hundreds of small bomblets packed inside it. When the container bomb explodes, it showers the bomblets over a wide area. Some explode, but a big percentage fall to the ground and just lie there, stupidly.

Days, months, or even decades later--after the battles are over--along comes a child, a farmer, or someone just walking along. BLAM! Another stupid bomblet goes off, maiming or killing another innocent. Handicap International reports that 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and 27 percent are children.

Last month, nearly 100 nations signed a treaty, agreeing to ban cluster bombs--but the United States was not one of them. Our nation has about a billion of these murderous weapons in ready supply, and our leaders do not hesitate to deploy them. Nearly four decades ago our military left an estimated 80 million of these unexploded bomblets in Laos. Since then, some 15,000 Laotians have been killed by them, and many more horribly wounded.

When White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked why the Bush administration opposes the ban on cluster bombs, she said, "I have forgotten." No doubt she forgot because no rationalization makes a lick of sense. But if anyone needs a reminder of why our great country should take the lead on banning this stupid weapon, contact The Cluster Munition Coalition: www.stopclustermunitions.org