Ban on cluster bombs
More than 100 nations have agreed at an international conference in Dublin to ban cluster bombs, with Great Britain joining in despite U.S. opposition. While the Pentagon contended anew that cluster bombs are needed to protect American soldiers, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the agreement “a big step forward to make the world a safer place.”
Just how the United States should respond is something that the next president of the U.S. should address before the news cycle expires. As noted in an earlier thread, Barack Obama had voted in favor of a 2006 Senate measure to block use of cluster bombs in civilian areas, while Hillary Clinton and John McCain voted against it. (The measure was rejected.)
It’s already clear where George Bush stands. The U.S. did not participate in the conference and, according to Nobel laureate Jody Williams, still had tried to water down the agreement by pressuring allies.
“The issue I have with the United States is that it is working overtime to try to influence the negotiations without having the wherewithal and courage to come here itself and do its own dirty work,” she said. (The State Department’s comments are here.)
That is, Bush was quietly working toward the opposite result that Pope Benedict XVI had advocated – a strong, effective treaty. It should be noted that churches in Great Britain had been urging the prime minister to support the agreement.
Why is the USA always so cruel? Your country in the 21st Century has distinguished itself so far by violence and torture.
This is an important moral issue concerning the right to life and the right to bodily integrity.
Unexploded bomblets often look like brightly colored soda cans. Bomblets that fail to denonate on first impact become more unstable and more dangerous over time. Children are particularly at risk to be maimed or killed by residual bomblets because they perceive them as toys or sports objects. Well over half of the victims of cluster bomblets in Kosovo have been under the age of 20.
UNICEF has a report with a special section on this problem. “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.” Look under special concerns. The URL is http://www.un.org/rights/concerns.htm
The use of cluster bombs in civilian areas raises very serious questions about non-combatant immunity, a key moral principle of just war theory.
In addition, there is a moral obligation to remove unexploded ordinance after hosilities cease. This needs to be an important discussion in the growing talk about jus post bellum — what justice requires AFTER a war. The United States military is looking seriously into humanitarian requirements for clearance of unexploded ordinance — including but not limited to cluster bomblets — once military conflicts end.
Cluster bombs have been used by the United States in the Iraq war, so this is not a hypothetical moral debate.
It is indeed not hypothetical. If I recall correctly cluster bombs were used in residential areas in Iraq by both the US and the UK in 2003 and both countries at first denied, then admitted, that this was so. It is totally disgusting, to say the least.