Landmines were stigmatized while equally lethal cluster bombs escaped scrutiny as smart weapons

Evidence

While the landmine has been denounced as backward and barbarous, the cluster bomb has become associated with the era of advanced “smart” wars, wars whose technological sophistication offers the promise of a merciful, civilized precision. The United States has not only used cluster bombs in more conflicts than any other nation, it has also become the most vocal advocate of this technology’s purportedly indispensable and humane intelligence. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 666

Categorization

• XREF: The smart/backward moral divide between cluster bombs and landmines is a textbook case of precision rhetoric masking dispersion — building on ch43-44’s precision-warfare critique. — connects to: Counting cluster bombs as single weapons conceals their true dispersal scale — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 674; Landmines kill by weight, making peasants permanent indistinct enemies after wars end — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 672; Cluster bombs effectively disperses millions of lethal fragments across war zones — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 678 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Cluster bombs are landmines under a cover pseudonym. #expands (0.85) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 703
• Dud cluster bomblets become de facto landmines that wreck civilian life #exemplifies (0.80) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 683