Biden
wrong to send cluster bombs to Ukraine | READER COMMENTARY
For The Baltimore Sun
July 14, 2023 at 5:52 am
Activists and international delegations stand next to cluster
bomb units, during a visit to a Lebanese military base at the opening of the
Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, in the
southern town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Sept. 12, 2011. The Biden administration
recently decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine. (AP Photo/Mohammed
Zaatari) (Mohammad Zaatari/AP)
I sincerely appreciated the recent editorial cartoon (”Shipping cluster bombs to Ukraine
is a slight shift,” July 11) about President Joe Biden’s unwise
decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine. Obviously, Biden is not Donald
Trump. However, Biden has gone to the dark side a few times. For example, he
went for political reasons to see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi
Arabia, a pariah for those of us concerned about human rights.
And now Biden has blundered again with his approval to send those bombs
to a country experiencing an ongoing assault. It was ludicrous to hear a member
of the Biden administration justify the sale of those horrible weapons by
claiming Ukraine is running out of ammunition. In 2008, the United Nations
convention that banned the use of cluster munitions was signed, but the United
States, Russia and Israel refused to add their signatures.
A significant number of the bomblets fail to explode on impact and can
remain unexploded for years. This has resulted in children being killed in
countries where a military conflict had occurred. President Biden surely knows
this. So why would he send such a weapon to Ukraine?
— Max Obuszewski, Baltimore
-
CounterPunch.org - https://www.counterpunch.org –
Cluster Bombs Will Escalate the War in Ukraine
By Cesar
Chelala on July 14, 2023
Image
courtesy: British Library.
The use
of cluster bombs by the warring factions in Ukraine is a tragic turn of events
that will result in many more civilian deaths, many of them children. Russian
forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas of Ukraine since they
started the invasion of that country on February 24, 2022. Ukraine has also
been using them and will increase their use with the recent approval from the
United States to deliver those weapons.
President
Joe Biden justified his decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine because its
forces are running out of ammunition. The decision to send cluster bombs to
Ukraine is happening at the same time that the United States government is
destroying its chemical weapons stockpile from a military installation in
Kentucky. It is a tragic irony that while the U.S. is stopping the use of a
dangerous weapon, it is still promoting the use of an equally indiscriminate
one.
Cluster
bombs eject explosive bomblets (little bombs) designed to kill indiscriminately
and destroy vehicles over a wide expanse. According to national security
adviser Jack Sullivan, while Russian sub munitions were 30 to 40 percent duds,
the ones sent to Ukraine did not have a dud rate (the rate at which they fail
to explode upon landing) higher than 2.35 percent. Those unexploded bomblets
can continue killing or maiming civilians long after a conflict has ended, and
are very costly to find and remove.
“Cluster
munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will
continue to do so for many years,” said Mary Wareham, acting arms director at
Human Rights Watch. “Both sides should immediately stop using them and not try
to get more of these indiscriminate weapons.” Studies of cluster munitions use
have found that between one-quarter and two-thirds of the victims are children.
The use
of cluster munitions has been condemned by the United Nations, the Red Cross,
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Cluster Munition Coalition and
Doctors Without Borders. In a statement, the U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition
said it was “appalled by the decision by President Biden to transfer these
banned weapons, and urges that he reconsider given the significant humanitarian,
human rights, and political risks involved.”
Attacks
using cluster munitions may be considered war crimes, since they are carried
out in violation of accepted international rules of war. All nations that
ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May
2008, are prohibited from using them. This Convention entered into force and
became binding international law on 1 August 2010. The Convention on Cluster
Munitions “bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing
cluster bombs, and provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions.”
As of 10
February 2022, a total of 123 states joined the Convention, 110 as state
parties and 13 as signatories. Many of the world’s major military powers,
including the United States, Russia, Brazil, China, and Ukraine are not
signatories of that treaty. The treaty’s obligations became legally binding
after 30 states ratified the convention, and subsequently for all other
ratifying states.
More than
one hundred countries have agreed in principle that their stockpiles of cluster
munitions should be destroyed. However, at least 17 countries have used cluster
munitions in recent times. Since 2005, Handicap International has collected
hundreds of thousands of signatures to support its campaign to ban these
weapons. “Cluster bombs make evident the perverse use of technology. They kill
more with less,” says Carlos Duguech, an Argentinian peace activist.
There is a disconnect between
leaders’ decisions about the war in Ukraine, and what most of the people
worldwide, horrified by the traumas of war, truly want. In order to protect
children and other innocent civilians in Ukraine, all countries must
permanently ban the use and production of cluster bombs. Avoiding the loss of
thousands of innocent children’s lives justify this decision.
Article
printed from CounterPunch.org: https://www.counterpunch.org
URL
to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/14/cluster-bombs-will-escalate-the-war-in-ukraine/
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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