Digging up what might blow you up

Here is an article (Archaeology, 9 Feb 2015) on the travails of being an archaeologist on an old battlefield … or a Marshall Islands inhabitant. It brings up the old questions of who’s responsible for what when old munitions are left behind.  There are a number of old shipwrecks from World War II that went down containing substantial amounts of oil and are reaching the point where a disastrous loss of containment may occur; and then there are the munitions, from bombs still being found in Berlin, London, and many other old targets, to shipwrecks (such as this frightening possibility) in shallow waters that are a formidable threat to nearby towns.  While admitting that it’s difficult to ask the losers (who were the aggressors) to clean up outside of their own borders, since they were financially devastated, or ask the winners, who were merely defending themselves, to clean up, in the end someone has to do it or the cost, in environmental degradation and lives lost or blighted, becomes intolerable.  While I have plenty of respect for the concept of war graves, at some point you have to look at what that leaking war grave is doing to the descendants of our honored dead and realize that they wouldn’t want this just to honor their sacrifice.