Cluster bombs: will Olmert even get a slap on the wrist?

I see that in the last few days the Israeli use of cluster bombs in South Lebanon has started to get some attention (there is a fairly comprehensive piece in the Guardian). This was one of the best examples of what nonsense it is to talk about the IDF's "humanitarianism". As horrible as a suicide bomber in a bus or a cafe is, it's at least intelligible as an act of desperation, but the decision to scatter cluster munitions around civilian areas, when the Israeli leadership already knew that they had lost the war, had no sensible motivation except for spite.

Of course this was illegal; the US government doesn't like to admit what gets done with the weapons it hands out, so there are treaties supposedly restricting how they can be used, and occasionally there might be some token enforcement after the fact (like in 1982). But when it matters (anyone remember Halabja?) things can stay in the dark for a long time. The debacle in Lebanon is already so embarrassing that some folks are going to work hard to keep anything that could make it worse quiet.