It’s hard to imagine a weapon nastier than a bomb which throws out hundreds of bomblets which in turn explode, spewing shrapnel or incendiary material for hundreds of feet, covering an area the size of a football field, and yet leaving behind a large percentage of duds which can explode on contact years later to kill civilians and animals.
But there is something worse, and we have been using it in Iraq.
Although there have been stories on cluster bombs on DKos before, this was news to me. For more, turn the page
Meet our friends the CBU-71A, the CBU-71B, and the CBU-89, which do everything described above, but also have a random delay fusing option.
In other words, the bomblets don’t go off right away. One description I have found says the CBU-89 can be fused for random detonation times of several days.
This paragraph is from a detailed explanation of the mechanics of these munitions:
Air-delivered cluster bombs are composed of a large dispenser with attached fins (called the tactical munitions dispenser (TMD) in the newest systems); fuses and electronic devices to control, spin, and direct the weapon during fall; and submunitions or bomblets. The bomblets themselves are of a variety of designs. Submunitions for the older CBU-52/B are softball sized, the CBU-58A/B and CBU-71/B have baseball-sized bomblets, and the Mk20 Rockeye carries dart-shaped bomblets with a small fuse in the point end. Once released, cluster bomb units (CBUs) fall for a specified amount of time or distance before the dispenser opens, allowing the submunitions to cover a wide-area target. Depending on the type, the submunitions are activated by an internal fuse, and can detonate above ground, at impact, or in a delayed mode.
According to the AP, "Civilians account for 98 percent of cluster bomb victims, with a third of the casualties being children — mostly boys," quoting the campaign Handicap International. "Boys under 18 are particularly at risk, accounting for around 95 percent of child casualties and about one-third of the overall number the bomblets have killed or injured, according to the report. This is because boys in many countries are responsible for herding animals and collecting wood or water, during which they are exposed to unexploded bomblets lying on open land."
From a May 17, 2007 article in The Guardian:
The vast majority of cluster bomb casualties occur while victims are carrying on their daily lives, says the report, Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities.
In Afghanistan, boys between five and 14 who are tending animals are most likely to be casualties.
In Iraq, the repeated use of cluster bombs has left a devastating legacy that continues to severely restrict the lives of its people, the charity reports. More than 4,000 civilians have been killed or injured by failed cluster munitions since the end of the 1991 Gulf war. Some 60% of the casualties have been children.
There are currently three candidates for the US Presidency who have voted against an amendment which would ban the use of such weapons against civilians, and who do not support the current bill which would do the same thing: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Christopher Dodd. You can see who voted for and against the ban here.
Like the bombs themselves, the issue of using them on civilian populations and politicians’ refusals to ban them is a campaign gift that "keeps on giving"; it is hard to imagine any rationale which can be used to justify weapons which intentionally wait to kill innocent people, no matter how justifiable the initial bomb attacks may be. Whether we should even be in Iraq attacking people I will leave for another argument, but can anyone really disagree that this secondary and collateral action is wrong?
Senators Biden and Dodd, though they run for the office, are not generally expected to get the nomination; however, as senators they are able to vote to ban these weapons and have not done so. Senator Clinton, on the other hand, is in a very real position to become the President of the United States.
I argue that the United States should not be in the position it is now with respect to cluster munitions and I ask Senator Clinton to support Senators Feinstein and Leahy’s Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 (S.594), which she currently does not do; the bill is apparently stalled.
Why?