US to supply internationally banned cluster munitions to Ukraine
The US has announced that it will send Ukraine internationally banned cluster munitions.
From the White House to the Pentagon and the NSA, the US state and its various institutions went on a media blitz promoting the decision as being fully justified.
I'm as concerned about the humanitarian circumstance as anybody, but the worst thing for civilians in Ukraine is for Russia to win the war.
Colin Kahl, US Undersecretary of Defense
And I'm not going to stand up here and say it is easy, it's a difficult decision. It is a decision we defer. It's a decision that required a real hard look at the potential harm to civilians.
Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor
But are there any doubts about why cluster munitions should not be used and why they are deadly?
Cluster bombs carry several hundred bomb-lets or cluster munitions, dropped by aircraft, or launched from the ground.
They're designed to be dispersed over a wide area, which can be as large as several football pitches.
As they are free falling, they can strike the ground at a considerable distance from the target area if they are not used correctly.
But what makes cluster munitions so controversial is their impact on civilian populations.
The problem with cluster munitions is dud rate. Because these munitions drop large numbers of what are bomb-lets.
Depending on how they land, some of them don't go off and will hang around and that number is anywhere from 2% on up depending on the terrain.
And civilians can happen upon these duds and they can cause civilian casualties.
Mark Cancia, Retired US Marine Colonel
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, up to 40% of cluster bombs result in unexploded rounds or duds, which can cause civilian deaths for many years to come.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions is a convention banning the use of cluster bombs that has been joined by more than 120 countries.
The US, however, is not a signatory to this convention, even though it is a member of the Organization on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW.
According to the group Handicap International 98% of cluster bomb victims are civilians and 27% are children.
When the US President was asked why he was providing the cluster munitions, part of an $800 million security package, now, he said it was because the Ukraine had run out of ammunition.
The Secretary General supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions which as you know, was adopted 15 years ago and he wants countries to abide by the terms of that convention.
And so as a result, of course, he does not want there to be continued use of cluster munitions on the battlefield.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson, UN
The US backed Saudi war on Yemen, which is still not officially over, has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. Some of those deaths, mainly women and children, were a result of cluster munitions, courtesy of the US once again,
Children are the main victims of cluster bombs because the remains of the bombs are shiny metallic objects, and looks like toys. They can easily lose their eyes and suffer from deformities in the bodies.
Ali Abdullah Safrah, Former Manager, Mine Action Center
The US use of cluster munitions has not been restricted to Yemen. The US initially used cluster bombs during the invasion of Afghanistan, which began in 2001. The US dropped more than 1500 cluster bombs in that country during the first three years of the occupation.
It's very telling that the US felt no compunction with regard to using these outlawed bombs, and the amount used shows a complete disregard for human lives, particularly for women and children, who are still being murdered to this day.
The Biden administration has also agreed to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells to equip the Abrams battle tanks that the US is sending to Kyiv.
Britain has already delivered Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine equipped with depleted uranium shells.
Depleted Uranium Munitions, developed in the 1970s, are not nuclear weapons and do not produce a nuclear explosion, but soldiers or civilians can be exposed to the uranium either in combat or afterward.
This was particularly prevalent in Iraq during the US invasion in 2003 where heavy use of depleted uranium caused many to die and suffer to this day of conditions which have led to things like birth defects.
Instead of searching for a political solution, the US and UK Governments clearly believe that providing DU munitions will improve Ukraine's ability to defeat Russian tanks and bring this conflict to an end.
What is even more telling is that the US has said that Ukraine has run out of ammunition, particularly the 155 millimeter Howitzer, bringing into question Ukraine's ability to continue this war.
The 155 millimeter Howitzer round is one of the most requested artillery munitions of the Ukraine war. The US has already shipped more than 1.5 million rounds to Ukraine, but Kyiv is still seeking more.
Even though Russia and Ukraine have both been accused of using cluster munitions, which have killed civilians on both sides, the Russian Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, criticized the transfer of these weapons to Ukraine by the US.
The cruelty and cynicism with which Washington has approached the issue of transferring lethal weapons to Kyiv is striking.
There will be a risk for many years to come that innocent civilians will be blown up by sub munitions that have failed.
Do these civilians deserve to suffer this fate, a fate brought about due to the US desire to weaken Russia, the purported aim of the US supporting Ukraine in this war?
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