Biden's Folly: Cluster Bombs For Ukraine...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Imagine that - the United States is sending highly-controversial "cluster bombs" to warring Ukraine for its use against invading Russian military forces. Uh, no, say many world leaders, all who see deployment of the killing weapon as being morally wrong. Our allies are saying that even as U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledges he has okayed the move.

Is it to bring Russia to its knees, or is it to appease Ukraine?

Stubborn Russia is not going to its knees, and Ukraine likely has no qualms about asking the NATO allies - including the U.S. - for as many powerful and destructive weapons as they can actually get.

Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers. Because the war is being seemingly only fought in Ukraine, well, the fear there is that these bombs would kill Russian soldiers, yes, but also anyone else near their landing, such as civilians.

This is what a cluster bomb (one model shown in photo above) does, according to BBC News: [ They typically release lots of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. The munitions have also caused controversy over their failure - or dud - rate. Unexploded bomblets can linger on the ground for years and then indiscriminately detonate. ]

Democrat Biden has received vigorous criticism from members of Congress, including from ranking members of his own political party. But not all Republicans oppose the idea. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso is one who likes it. He even said the U.S. is "taking too long" to send weapons to war-torn Ukraine.

Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, of Texas, says he sees no wrong with supplying Ukraine with the controversial weapon.

Biden, shown in photo below, at right, gave this reason for doing it now: Ukraine is running out of ammunition and desperately needs this bomb.

Okay on that, if it's true. The war is now past the year-and-a-half stage. Russia is not showing any signs of letting-up, even after a dust-up with mercenaries who last week mutinied and led to a belief that the attack/invasion was in trouble.

It is not, say U.S. military officials.

Opposition has come from various quarters. "They pose a huge danger to kids that pick them up; to farmers with their plows; to refugees returning to their homes, digging through the rubble; all sorts of civilians," said Bonnie Docherty, senior researcher in the arms division at Human Rights Watch and the director of the Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative at Harvard Law School. "There’s a whole host of long-term dangers, as well as the immediate dangers at the time of attack."

Additionally, a 2008 international treaty bans the use, production, transfer, and stockpile of these bombs. More than 100 countries have signed on to that Convention on Cluster Munitions, including many NATO allies that are also supplying weapons to Ukraine. The United States, Russia, and Ukraine, among others, have not joined that treaty.

There was no mention of when the cluster bombs would be delivered. If it is as difficult an operation as are the tanks the U.S. promised Ukraine but has yet to deliver (maybe next year on that), well, there may be some time to reconsider the approval.

It wouldn't take more than one misguided cluster bomb or delayed explosion that would kill more Ukrainians than Russians for the whole operation to be scrapped, is what we say...

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