Cluster Bombs - Ireland

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I spoke to a woman from UNESCO yesterday working on inclusive education for children with disabilities. Thirty years of warfare have left a significant number of disabled children, most due to poor health care access during 30 years of war but an estimated 25% due to the direct consequences of conflict. For example, those injured from explosive remnants of war (ERWs), including cluster bomb duds or other unexploded ordnance, are frequently children who inadvertently pick up or hit the ERWs while collecting wood, water or other materials for their family.  Children who lose a leg or an arm, suffer deafness, or have other disabilities are usually not allowed to go to school, not allowed to learn a trade, nor given other development tools that would allow them to become normally functioning adults.

The woman I spoke to in UNESCO has been working for the past twenty years to persuade Afghan government entities and school authorities to allow some of these children to go to school.  It's a sad legacy that sometimes the most effective redress for those injured in conflict would be a return to normalcy – something that these children's injuries and the ongoing conflict do not allow.

The Defense Department unveiled its new policy on cluster munitions. In it, the weapons, which scatter tiny bomblets over huge swaths of territory, are described as "legitimate weapons with clear military utility." Not only do "they provide distinct advantages against a range of targets," a Defense Department press release notes, but "their use reduces risks to U.S. forces and can save U.S. lives." The Pentagon says the munitions will continue to be used, "in a manner consistent with the law of armed conflict."

But the law is changing. In May, just about every country on the planet signed a treaty banning cluster bombs. The U.S. was one of four holdouts.

Can anyone say that a bomb, any bomb, saves lives?

Some of the world’s main producers and stockpilers – including the United States, Russia and China – oppose the move to ban cluster munitions. A statement from the US, which boycotted the Dublin conference, said:”While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk.”

Cluster bombs have been used in battle for more than 40 years, in 30 countries. Landmine Action says they pose the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. In Kosovo, Nato aircraft dropped around 290,000 sub-munitions over a 10-week period in 1999. Cluster bombs were also used in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, and over 10,000 were used in Iraq during the US invasion in 2003. During the five weeks of the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israel spread 4m sub-munitions across the country’s southern regions, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties.

The new treaty prohibits the use, production and trade of cluster munitions, and establishes a six-year deadline for the destruction of all existing stocks. It also goes beyond the ban by requiring the clearance of contaminated areas – with a deadline – as well as assistance to victims and affected communities.

Simon Conway, from the Cluster Munitions Coalition, a network of civil society and rights organisations engaged with the ICRC to secure a ban on the weapons, says there will now be "massive" pressure on the US. "We think now that all of America’s key allies have just renounced the weapon it will be very difficult for the US to engage in operations with countries who have banned this weapon and continue to use them."

Ref: Le Monde

The number of countries that agreed in May to ban cluster bombs, which eject smaller munitions upon impact. The U.S. has used the weapon, which are banned by the Geneva Conventions, in the Iraq War. According to Dahr Jamail, an unembedded journalist who reported from Iraq, the U.S. has also used depleted uranium during attacks in Fallujah.

Jamail's 2007 book, "Beyond the Green Zone," is a tremendous read about the often untold Iraqi side of attacks, while embedded reporters ride around in Humvees under U.S. military protection and swallow the propaganda pills the U.S. government feeds. (Most front line war news comes from embedded reporters.)

I read Richard Engel's 2004 book, "A Fist in the Hornet's Nest," and I thought that was an unfettered look into the tragedy of the Iraq war. Boy was I wrong. Engel, NBC News' correspondent in Baghdad, did a nice job as an "embed," but Engel talked to a fraction of the Iraqis that Jamail spoke with.

Jamail wrote, "The 'embeds,' as usual, had no idea what the Iraqis in the city thought about [attacks on Fallujah]. They never talked with any of the Iraqi doctors, medical workers, or families of the victims. Clustered together in the back of Stryker vehicle, peering out from under their black helmets, the embedded reporters saw the scene only from the perspective of the U.S. soldiers they relied on for their safety, Thus, they could not see what I was about to witness after they departed with the soldiers.

"As the patrol receded, spontaneous celebrations erupted, and crowds of residents flew into the street. Iraqi flags appeared everywhere. People began chanting and waved flags wildly. Members of both the Iraqi police and ICDC joined in the celebration, waving their guns in the air and giving the victory sign. A parade was quickly formed. Trucks with boys and men riding in the backs lined up, their horns blaring. Policemen who were there to guard the marines promptly turned into parade escorts, as well as participants.

"The ruckus began to inch down the street. An old Fallujan man riding in the back of a truck waving a tattered Iraqi flag yelled, 'Today is the first day of the war against Americans! This is a victory for us over the Americans."

Toward the beginning of the war, many Americans asked where were the stories of the soldiers' good will on the behalf of the Iraqis. Today, I ask where are the stories about the Iraqis?

Jamail continues, "One 18-year-old [Iraqi] girl had been shot through the neck. She was making breathy gurgling noises as the doctors frantically worked on her amid her muffled moaning. Flies dodged the working hands of doctors to return to the patches of her vomit that stained her black abaya.

"Her younger brother, a small child of 10 with a gunshot would in his head from a marine sniper, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomited as the doctors raced to save his life while family members cried behind him. 'The Americans cut our electricity days ago, so we cannot vacuum the vomit from his throat,' a furious doctor [told Jamail]. [The children] were both loaded into an ambulance and rushed toward Baghdad, only to die en route."

I've only completed half of "Beyond the Green Zone," but it's one of the best books I've read in some time. There will be surely more from it at a later date.

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On May 30th, 110 nations [now 111] signed the Cluster Munitions Treaty in Dublin, Ireland. The treaty bans the use, development and stockpiling of cluster munitions--a type of weapon that when dropped aerially or ground-launched, disperses hundreds or thousands of tiny submunitions (or bomblets) that can cover an area as wide as a football field. The submunitions are designed to explode on impact, but in many cases they don't, leaving behind what are functionally hundreds of mini-landmines. The Cluster Munition Treaty recognizes requires clean up and - finally - assistance to civilians harmed.

Afghanistan is at the top of the list among the countries where cluster munitions, landmines, and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) are still a problem. Mine casualties have been reported in 32 of the 34 provinces according to the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA). Since 1979, approximately 3,000 Afghans have been killed due to landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), and another 17,500 have been injured. While cluster munitions do not make up the bulk of left over explosives in Afghanistan, they have been a serious problem since 2001 when the United States used them.

Mine removal and awareness programs have been active in the country since that time, but ongoing conflict in many areas makes it hard to keep up. Cleared areas become contaminated again with new ordinance, most often dropped unintentionally but still at great risk to Afghan civilians. Meanwhile new violence makes many contaminated areas "off limits" for safety programs that could keep Afghans safe. The number of Afghans injured or killed by mine/ERWs has been reduced to 50 to 60 per month – this from approximately 150 per month about two years ago. But without more funding and attention to the issue, the UNMACA official I spoke to suggested that all they could do was keep pace.

UPDATE: Today I went back to visit the ACAP field office I first visited in February. At the time, the ACAP staff were considering reaching out to a remote village called S_____ that has received little to no international assistance because

I noticed a section on Cindy McCain and checked out some of her activities and noticed this trip in April to Kosovo (scroll to the bottom) to look at efforts to remove munitions from the country.

Cindy recently visited HALO Trust's operation in Kosovo. She met with the de-miners and reviewed minefields and cluster bomb strikes. While in Kosovo, she talked with the students of a school that still has unexploded munitions in their playground. She also spent time with the members of HALO Trusts operation in Kosovo learning about new de-mining techniques and the obstacles HALO faces in making Kosovo mine free. She wrapped up her visit by meeting with both the President and Prime Minister to get their assurances of their commitment to a mine free Kosovo. Shortly after her visit, one man was killed and three were injured at a site she had reviewed.

Now for me the easiest way to prevent this problem is don't let it happen in the first place. In a weird way it is like a prevention plan, don't let the mines and cluster bombs be available, then they can't be put down, which means later they won't need to be cleaned up.

Now cluster bombs are the worst, they are small, a lot of them don't explode and they stick around for a long time. Oh, and they are expensive to remove. Cluster bombs are sooo bad that there is a new international convention on this type of munition, the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Countries that ratify the convention are obliged "never under any circumstances to":

(a) Use cluster munitions;
(b) Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions;
(c) Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

Now sadly the US is not currently a party to this convention.  You might wonder what the US has done on this topic.  Well in 2006, there was an amendment that address this issue, SA 4882 (roll call)

SA 4882. Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself and Mr. LEAHY) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill H.R. 5631, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes; as follows:

At the end of title VIII, add the following:

Sec. 8109. No funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act my be obligated or expended to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer any cluster munition unless the rules of engagement applicable to the cluster munition ensure that the cluster munition will not be used in or near any concentrated population of civilians, whether permanent or temporary, including inhabited parts of cities or villages, camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or camps or groups of nomads.

Now this amendment isn't that horrible, it is basically asking that the military draw up (or amend current ones) rules of engagements that will protect civilian locations before authorizing any purchase and movement of cluster munitions.

Now the amendment didn't pass losing 30-70.  Of the recent candidates, Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and McCain voted against it (for open rules of engagement for cluster munitions), and Obama for it.

To me this seems like a bit of a split in the McCains.

-Josh

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-- Fadel Shana, 24, was killed by several darts, known as flechettes, which burst from a shell fired by an Israeli tank on April 16 about 5:30 p.m. The tank firing and shell bursting were the final images on tape before Shana's camera was destroyed.

-- Eight other civilians aged between 12 and 20 were killed, six of them aged under 16. At least seven other bystanders aged from 10 to 18 were also hit. None was armed or was a militant. Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, was wounded in the wrist.

-- Shana and Abu Mizyed were wearing blue body armour marked "Press" and stood next to a car bearing "TV" and "Press" markings on a country road some 100 metres southeast of Gaza's main highway. Two Merkava-4 main battle tanks stood on a ridge about 1.5 km (a mile) to the southeast, facing northwest.

-- In the preceding half hour, the Reuters crew had driven past a point 700 metres from the tanks, filmed the aftermath of an Israeli air strike that killed 9 civilians, and returned by the same route. Shana had stopped, set up his tripod and filmed a panorama of the area, including the tanks, for some minutes.

-- Twenty or more children, some on bicycles, were present between Shana and the main Gaza highway 100 metres behind him. No witness heard or saw militant activity in the area all day.

-- An Israeli observation drone was circling over the area.

-- One of the tanks fired two flechette shells, typically containing 5,000 1.5-inch (3.75-mm) metal darts. Their purpose is to kill troops in an area 300 metres wide. In 2003, Israel's Supreme Court said "use of the flechette is restricted to areas in which the danger to innocent civilians is not actual".

-- The first shell killed Shana and others. The tank then fired a second flechette shell, perhaps a minute later. Journalists who arrived filmed a third explosion at 5:40 p.m. Shana's car was burnt out but its diesel tank had not exploded. 

-- Shana ... was killed as a result of an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) tank attack at approximately 1730 on April 16, 2008.

-- For several minutes prior to his death (Shana) had been filming a panoramic scene of an area in which an IDF air strike had killed nine people believed to be civilians and in which at least two IDF tanks were still visible.

-- Three IDF soldiers had been killed in the morning in an ambush approximately 15 km northeast of the location.

-- But ... there were no known militants at the scene of the attack and no identified militant activity.

-- There was at least one UAV above the scene. This drone should have been able to distinguish the press markings on Shana's vehicle and identify the presence of children.

-- (Shana) had a professional attitude to safety and had taken all reasonable precautions ... He complied with Reuters' own safety policy and his actions can not be interpreted as irresponsible or negligent in any way.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKMAC35776720080615

Hopefully Israel will be forthcoming in the prosecution of these murderers and put policy into place that will stop such killings in the future.

Update:  This morning, Israel is commenting on the situation as such: 

"We have expressed regret and the army is conducting an investigation. It's a tragedy," Regev said. "There was no identification that he was a journalist. Had it been clear he was a journalist, the shell would not have been fired."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSL167243720080616

This week's wrap-up has nine stories that were passed over by the "liberal" media. Also we update the cell phone story with videos!

Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Benjamin Peake minimizes the sacrifices our troops make

United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Benjamin Peake, a conservative Republican appointee (Dec. 20, 2007), shows little respect for the service of America's Iraq and Afghanistan veterans by trivializing concerns about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) in troops returning from combat.  

Peake speaking on May 24, 2008, at the Disabled American Veterans’ 19th Annual Department Convention in Fairbanks, Alaska along with Alaska Senator Ted Stevens questioned the prevalence of the condition among the returning troops.

“I worry about labeling all these kids coming back,” he said. “Just because someone might need a little counseling when they get back, doesn’t mean they need the PTSD label their whole lives.”

The following day at Quinhagak, Alaska he again expressed his sentiments that PTSD and TBI are inconsequential conditions. He equated most cases as the equivalent of what a high-school football player might have experience in getting his “bell rung.”

Bush: US 'learning as we go' in Iraq and Afghanistan

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 28, 2008) (AP) — President Bush said Wednesday that rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan is proving difficult as the wars rage on, and "we're learning as we go."

General Electric remains skeptical of carbon dioxide role in driving climate change

General Electric in a May 28th, 2008 press release said, "C02 is a possible contributing factor to climate change."

General Electric’s multi-million dollar "Ecomagination" ad campaign paints the company as a concerned environmental steward but CEO Jeffrey Immelt admitted to Forbes magazine in 2005 that it is little more than a sales pitch.

NASA Inspector General Report Confirms Political Appointees Suppressed Climate Data

June 3, 2008 – A recently released report confirms criticism of the conservative Bush administration had their political appointees deliberately skewed, changed, and deleted scientific findings about the seriousness of global warming. NASA's inspector general found that Bush’s political appointees changed the agency’s press releases for purely political reasons and they denied media access to NASA climate scientists.

Court forces release of climate report four-years past its due date

Four years past its mandated deadline the Bush administration released the "Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States"

The report concludes droughts in the U.S. West and stronger hurricanes will likely result from hunam-induced global warming. The report was created to allow government agencies and Congress to have one document to refer to when making policy on climate change.

United States Has Lost Its Science Leader Position Says Top Scientists

NEW YORK, May 28, 2008 -- After the conservative Republican Bush Administration seven-year assault on science, some of the nation's leading scientists say “the United States has lost its edge as a leader in science education and research”

They “sharply criticized the diminished role of science in the United States and the shortage of federal funding for research, even as science becomes increasingly important to combating problems such as climate change and the global food shortage.”

Some U.S. Soldiers Launch Major Initiative To Convert Iraqi Muslims To Christianity

Some U.S. soldiers based in Iraq may have launched a major initiative of distributing Bibles and other fundamentalist Christian literature to thousands of Iraqi Muslims with the goal of converting them to Christianity. The proselytizing started soon after the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003.

“Such fundamentalist Christian proselytizing DIRECTLY violates General Order 1A, Part 2, Section J issued by General Tommy Franks on behalf of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) back in December of 2000 which strictly prohibits ‘proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice,’ said Mikey Weinstein, a former Reagan administration White House counsel, former general counsel to presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, former Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG), and founder and president of the government watchdog agency The Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Conservative Republican Bush Administration Refused to Sign Global Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs

More than 100 countries reached agreement Wednesday to ban cluster bombs with the exception of the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan.

Cluster bombs are munitions that eject a many smaller submunitions, “bomblets.” They are designed to cover a wide area. Many of the bomblets remain unexploded and a hazard to civilians long after a conflict has ended. Because the unexploded bomblets look like toys, children are often the victim of being maimed or killed by them.

News of Senator John McCain

June 9, 2008 – McCain pledges to send an unlimited number of U.S. troops to Iraq on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

Update: Are Cell Phones Safe?

June 3, 2008 – Watch three videos on making popcorn with nothing more than your cellphones!

— Truthmonk

UNEARTHED:

NEWS OF THE WEEK THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA FORGOT TO REPORT

I think many of you would be very interested to hear his views on this so I am encouraging him to join this blog.

Am I right? Would you like to hear from him?

CLUSTER BOMBS: We are all implicated.

There was one particular aspect of her speech that struck me as it exited her mouth, and has stuck with me since then.

Dr. Nutt spoke about cluster bombs.

"A cluster bomb is a cannister that opens in midair and ejects hundreds of "bomb-lets" across an area of more or less two football fields. These bomb-lets are little metal balls - as powerful as a hand grenade. When these bomb-lets explode, there's a rain of jagged shrapnel. When they explode on the ground with a time delay they kill or maim anyone within a radius of 10 to 15 meters." (The Real News Website)

These weapons of war are frightening, mostly because of the facts that come with them.

"as many as 1 in 4 of these bomb-lets never explode. The place where they fall becomes a minefield." (The Real News Website)

Dr. Nutt explained that 98% of the victims of these unexploded bomblets are civilians, mostly children. Despite this the American Military maintain that they are a vital aspect of their war efforts and refuse to discontinue the practice.

And then there is us. What do we have to do with the problem, you wonder? 

Thats right. You are *unknowingly* paying for the production of cluster bombs, and the death of innocent people.

You know that bit of CPP you automatically pay into? that quiet deduction on your paystub? yeap, CPP invests "in corporations linked to the manufacture of anti-personnel landmines." Thus, you also invest in corporations that manufacture cluster bombs. nice.

http://therealnews.com/id/1594/June 1, 2008/Cluster+bombs%3A+Hell+from+above

http://coat.openconcept.ca/cpp/

http://coat.openconcept.ca/cpp/overcoat/sanders-antipersonnelmines.html

[Brandon Sack] But for the U.S. and Israel to continuously rant about the depravity of “terrorists” while simultaneously reserving the right to use weapons which they know maim and kill almost exclusively civilians and children, brings a whole new depth to the word “hypocrisy.”

Sadly, we have now lost all moral credibility in the eyes of the world community. We do not have the right to label any person, organization or state a “terrorist” until we actually walk the walk and start holding ourselves up to the same standards we so disingenuously demand of the rest of the world.

The rest.

Why won't America join the movement to ban cluster munitions? Our executive director Sarah Holewinski sat down with a premier expert to find out. Marc Garlasco is senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch and a board member of CIVIC. He was instrumental in getting the ban passed and was there at its signing.

Sarah: The US says it can't support the Convention on Cluster Munitions because its military then couldn't help countries devastated by tsunamis and earthquakes. Is this true?

Marc: This is circular reasoning at its best. First of all, what humanitarian operation uses cluster munitions? The real issue is US ships have cluster munitions on them, and the US was worried their allies who did sign the Convention could no longer work with it because of that. But this is a non-issue. No humanitarian or peacekeeping operation has ever been barred because of weapons.

Take the landmine ban treaty, for example. The US didn't sign that and yet has worked together with allies like the UK (who did sign it) for years. What's more, this new Convention allows for those kinds of partnerships, whether cluster munitions are on ships or planes, so this is a non-issue.

Sarah: But the US says it needs cluster munitions to defend the country. Do we really need them?

Marc: We haven't used them since 2003, so let's just say they're obviously not indispensable when fighting a war. There are plenty of other weapons that can defend the country and not indiscriminately kill and maim civilians, who represent the vast majority of victims.

Sarah: The US says it won't "unilaterally get rid of" clusters.

Marc: The Cluster Munitions Conventions is nowhere near a unilateral effort. There are 111 countries who have agreed to destroy their stockpiles and not use these horrible weapons again, including key NATO allies like the UK, Germany, France, and Canada. If they can do it, so can the United States.

Sarah: So, as a nation, we're really behind the 8-ball here, aren't we?

Marc: Couldn't have said it better myself.

To learn more about the impact of cluster munitions on civilian populations, and to take action on this issue, click here.

Well over half the world's governments agreed last week to "consign cluster munitions to the trash bin of history," in the words of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the civil society collective that delivered the treaty. Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, representatives of 110 governments completed negotiations on a new international treaty that bans the production, use, and export of all existing cluster munitions and commits them to destroy their stockpiles within eight years.

The U.S. government did not attend the negotiations, instead arm-twisting its allies to weaken the treaty. In the end, though, all other major NATO countries joined with the majority in agreeing to get rid of these weapons, which are designed to kill or maim every living thing in an area as large as two football fields. The vast majority of victims of cluster bombs have been civilians.

Stephen Mull, Acting Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, held a press briefing in the midst of the negotiations to explain why the U.S. government was not at the table. His explanations were creative.

If the convention passes in its current form, any U.S. military ship would be technically not able to get involved in a peacekeeping operation, in providing disaster relief or humanitarian assistance as
we're doing right now in the aftermath of the earthquake in China and the typhoon in Burma, and not to mention everything that we did in Southeast Asia after the tsunami in December of 2004. And that's
because most U.S. military units have in their inventory these kinds of weapons.

A reporter astutely asked Mull why it wasn't possible to "just take the munitions off your ships?" Mull responded:

Well, we - the number one priority of any country's military is to defend its country. And if our military planners are determined that these are necessary to protect American interests, we - it's not
something that we're going to unilaterally get rid of.

The cluster bomb treaty would be unilateral.except for the other 110 countries that also agreed to abandon cluster bombs in Dublin.

And why are cluster munitions a necessary defense? Mull again had an answer:

These [cluster munitions] are weapons that have a certain military utility and are of use. The United States relies on them as an important part of our own defense strategy.

When the media inexplicably pushed back, asking what, exactly, this military utility was, Mull ruled out some possibilities:

How many wars like that is the United States going to be in, in the foreseeable future. My personal guess is probably not a lot. I don't think we have that kind of threat from Canada or Mexico, by the
way, for example.

No doubt the Canadian and Mexican governments are reassured to hear that the United States does not plan to go to war with them anytime soon.

Finally, Mull concluded his circumnavigation around the question of the military utility of cluster munitions by conceding:

The United States hasn't used them [cluster munitions] in the conflicts we're involved in since 2003, during the intervention in Iraq.. But the issue is, is that the United States is a global power. We have global responsibilities and global alliance relationships. And I don't think we could rule out that other conflicts that our allies might be involved with in the future, which we would be required to respond to. For example, let's say an invasion of South Korea or some other - let's say a war that breaks out and - or let's say Syria invades Lebanon, God forbid, that that happens, I mean, it's not entirely impossible that there could be a conflict like that in which we would be responsible for helping for the defense of our ally in which the weapons would be needed.

Mull might want to consult with the Lebanese government before using cluster bombs in Lebanon to defend against a Syrian invasion. They do have some experience with the weapons. Just two years ago, Lebanon
became one of the most heavily cluster-bombed countries in the world when Israel launched around four million submunitions into southern Lebanon. Unexploded remnants still litter the countryside, claiming
the lives and limbs of hundreds while making the cultivation of large swathes of land perilous. Given this reality, one cannot imagine a scenario in which using cluster munitions would serve to "protect" the
Lebanese - rather, it would seem to do just the opposite.

Sadly, this press briefing was not a work of creative fiction but a serious attempt to outline U.S. military policy. With the world watching, the U.S. government trotted out an incoherent series of justifications designed to confuse the debate. It was bad enough that the United States was AWOL from the negotiations. It can't even provide a good excuse for its absence.

Daniel Allen is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) and a legislative program assistant on conventional weapons at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (www.fcnl.org).

[Thanks to Brenda at Friends of Lebanon for the heads-up. –dt]

The British armed forces clung to their cluster bombs like a baby to its rattle, but Britain was among the 100 countries that agreed to a treaty banning cluster bombs in Dublin on Friday.

Well, it doesn’t actually ban all cluster bombs; just the current designs that leave large areas littered with unexploded bomblets that go on killing civilians for years after they were dropped. Israel dropped some four million bomblets on Lebanon during the last three days of the 2006 war, for example, and more than 30 people have been killed by them since the war ended.

If someone designed a cluster bomb whose bomblets all exploded reliably on impact, or at least within 48 hours of landing, then it would presumably be legal since it mostly killed soldiers. The major producers of cluster bombs — the US, Russia, Israel, China, India and Pakistan — were not even at the Dublin conference, and have no intention of signing the treaty. But it’s a start.

This sort of treaty does not really work by legal compulsion. The countries that sign the treaty are legally bound by it, but even for them there is no enforcement mechanism. For those that don’t sign the treaty, there are no formal constraints of any sort. But by “banning” a particular weapon, the smaller and less militarized countries can exert a real moral pressure on those nations that insist on retaining it. The Pentagon issued a statement saying that “While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers...at risk.” But this statement would be even truer of nuclear weapons, which have excellent military utility against troops but also kill everybody else in the vicinity.

Cluster bombs would have been quite useful in the environment they were originally designed for, which was industrial-scale warfare in central Europe or on the Korean Peninsula. If they exploded high enough to let the bomblets scatter properly, a few well-placed cluster bombs or shells could destroy dozens of soft-skinned military vehicles and blunt the attack of an entire mechanized infantry battalion. A few hundred could stop an army corps.

But that kind of war never happened, and where cluster bombs have actually been used is in little wars against low-tech opponents: By the US in Cambodia, by Russia in Afghanistan, by the US again in Kosovo and Iraq, and by Israel in Lebanon. They are not particularly effective against the sort of targets that are on offer in that kind of war, but what the hell, we have them, let’s use them.

Unfortunately, whether by accident or by design, the bomblets have this curious propensity not to go off right away. Between 10 percent and 40 percent of the hundreds of bomblets released by the average cluster bomb or shell fail to detonate on hitting the ground, and lie there until — weeks or months or years later — a farmer drives over it in his tractor, or a kid comes along and picks it up. It is estimated that 40 percent of the casualties of cluster bombs are not soldiers but children. So why do some countries cling to these things, while others are willing to let them go? If you look at the list of the hold-outs, it is mainly the countries that just might, in some remote but dreadful contingency, have to face a mass assault by motorized forces: US forces in Korea, Indian or Pakistani forces in the Punjab, the Israelis against Syria (although the Syrians would have to rebuild their forces first), and Russia and China mainly against each other.

None of these contingencies is at all likely to occur, but the rule in military affairs (as in much else) is better safe than sorry. None of these countries signed the 1997 treaty banning anti-personnel landmines either, and they are not going to give up their cluster bombs. So of what use is the treaty?

More than you might think. Cluster bombs are now stigmatized as immoral and (for most countries) illegal weapons, and governments that do use them will have to pay a high public relations price. That certainly wouldn’t deter those countries if they would make a real difference militarily, but that has not been the case in most instances where they have been used in the past.

What the treaty really does is to shift assumptions so that international public opinion will see a country that uses cluster bombs as being in the wrong. As a result, there will be instances where a country that possesses them decides not to use them. The treaty is not a waste of time.

1. Over 100 countries agreed to ban "the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of all existing and future cluster bombs"
2. There is no exception, and no transition period. The ban covers all kinds of "submunitions"
3. Stockpiles must be destroyed within 8 years
4. A new standard has been defined for humanitarian assistance for victims, families and communities
5. A "Treaty" will be signed in Oslo in December 2008 (Nobel Peace Prize, anybody...)
6. It will then take 30 countries to officially adopt the Treaty, for this to actually enter into force
7. Afterwards it will be a matter of monitoring the situation
8. Last but not least, the muribund UN talks on conventional weapons may be brought back to life

Countries such as the USA, Russia and China do not appear likely to join the ban on cluster bombs. Some say "submunitions" are essential to modern war and without them many of their soldiers may get killed.

The best reply to that, I have read it somewhere on the web: "Cluster bombs save soldiers' lives? So would anthrax..."