As a fellow blogger, I am glad that you are stirred up by the debate in Geneva on Cluster Munitions and that you have come to see for yourself what happens on the ground. But I am puzzled that you think Diplomats either in the Oslo Process or the CCW should have been employed for their looks. Some of your personal comments undermine what you are trying to say on what is a really important issue.

You are also wrong to say that representatives in the CCW don’t have any personal experience of the impact on innocent civilians when they get caught up in armed conflict. If you were to ask around the room you would find people who have served in almost every war or conflict over the past 20 years.

The Oslo Treaty is a huge step forward, but unfortunately too many countries who use Cluster Munitions are unlikely to sign it for many years. The CCW is trying to persuade those outside Oslo to agree to get rid of their worst “dumb” Cluster Munitions. No one said this was ever going to be easy.