Are Anti-U.S. Feelings Driving Cluster Bomb Treaty?
When are some weapons more evil than others? When America makes it a point to use them in protecting their troops.
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The papacy may or may not have tried to ban the crossbow. But the Second Lateran Council (1139) certainly disparaged the “murderous art of crossbowmen and archers” when their weapons were directed against Christians. The dismayed council decided to prohibit their use on Christians “from now on.”
Alas, perpetuity proved to be short-lived.
Likewise, naval arms limitations treaties after World War One failed to stop naval warfare in World War Two.
As naval-history.net notes, in 1936 Hitler’s Germany “agreed to prohibit unrestricted submarine warfare against unarmed ships.” Yes, in 1936 Hitler claimed -disarmingly-that he wanted peace, and legions of appeasers believed him. Within three years Hitler invaded Poland, and the U-boats began their savage sea campaign.
Arms control treaties have a uninspiring history of trust, hope, and, occasionally, technological vision, entwined with delusions, calculated lies, rhetorical posturing, and outright political fraud. They have a sad legacy of providing diplomatic cover for vicious dictatorships. Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and —as it plays thermonuclear hide and seek with the UN, EU, US, Israel, and Iraq– remains superficially committed to the agreement. North Korea signed it and cheated, then withdrew. (Further reading here.)
Which brings us to the cluster munitions convention negotiations held in Ireland in late May, and the conference’ treaty banning cluster munitions adopted on May 30.
Hosannaed by arms controllers, hoorahed by “the international community,” hailed by anti-Americans everywhere, the treaty is another attempt to politically cleanse warfare. Over 100 nations are scheduled to sign the treaty at ceremonies this coming December.
Cluster weapons are hideous weapons -but show me a weapon that isn’t. “Area weapons” like the first-generation of cluster munitions are not a new idea. The canister round discharged by Napoleon’s smooth-bore cannons wreaked hell on opposing cavalry formations and massed infantry assaults. Canister and its cousin “grapeshot” were the machinegun rounds and after a fashion, the cluster munitions of their era.
Modern cluster munitions are small bomblets released from artillery shells or larger bombs. “Grenade-like” is a common description for at least one type of cluster munition.
The United States pushed development of cluster munitions to serve as a “super canister round from above” fired at or dropped on massed Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers, and (the best target) the “thin-skinned” trucks supporting the armor. The “sub-munitions” (bomblets) would scatter from the larger “delivery-dispersal munition” and strike the vehicles or serve as “instant minefields” that would damage tracks or tires and immobilize the vehicles.
“No nukes!” That is an old cry, and fewer nukes remains a good idea. The Cold War-era cluster munitions were regarded as conventional alternatives to tactical nuclear weapons - in theory cluster munitions could at least delay if not severely damage an entire Soviet tank division attempting to break through NATO lines and drive to the Rhine. In other words, the weapons reduced the possibility of nuclear warfare in Europe.
Cluster-type munitions could also be used against infantry (anti-personnel role) or used to suppress anti-aircraft weapons (guns, radars, missiles, etc). A “cluster strike” against a Saddam-era anti-aircraft position could save the life of US or British pilots flying UN-sanctioned “no fly zone” missions over northern Iraq — missions designed to save the lives of innocent Kurds exposed to Saddam’s depredations.
Like every explosive bomb or round a certain number of cluster munitions fail to explode. Cluster munitions litter many battlefields and continue to kill after the war ends. This is the legitimate moral spine of the argument to ban the weapons — like land mines and other unexploded ordnance, innocent lives are taken long after the military forces have left. The moral spine of the argument to keep them is made by the US Department of Defense which says the weapons protect the lives of American soldiers. Many pro-ban supporters don’t have cluster munitions. Many pro-ban supporters don’t like American soldiers, either. Saddam would have preferred the US and British pilots leave his airspace, so he could have his way with the Kurds.
Austin Bay is a syndicated columnist, author and strategist with over 30 years of service in the U.S Army and U.S. Army Reserves. His online writings can be found here
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26 Comments
John Samford:Not sure it matters. If on the slim chance that general overt warfare breaks out, any treaties will go into the trash bin of history, along side the kellog-Brand treaty, the land mine treaty, the Geneva convention, etc.
Jun 6, 2008 - 4:47 am Mike:Once war starts, all the high mined garbage goes in the trash. When the stakes are survival, the ONLY rule is win.
Of course the CBU treaty is anti-American. Only America actually fights it’s battle under the klieg lights, so to speak. Other nations use proxies. I have always thought there was a connection between why we win most of our wars and fighting them in the open. Never had time to research it.
The ” International Community “, will approve anything that damages U.S. interests, especially on the battlefield. It seems that only non US deaths are to be mourned. The American people are finally getting wise to this bias and hatred and thats why donations to the International Race and Hunger merchants are drying up.
Jun 6, 2008 - 5:43 am Jeff K:It could be the international community’s hatred of the US is what drives this call to ban cluster munitions.
Jun 6, 2008 - 6:30 am Bill in New York:Or it could be that a recent study of 24 bombed countries found 98% of casualties from cluster munitions are civilians. Mustard gas had a better record than that.
One of the two.
yeah… sounds like more of the same idiocy we pay for with the U.N. (you know, just down the street from the former World Trade Center)… cluster munitions fired from a shot-gun capable of machine-gun style operation are particularly effective in house-to-house op’s (seen the video on YouTube yet? it’s awesome)… of course, fighting PC warfare requires more house-to-house op’s which is short term warm & fuzzy but long term suicidal… here’s the bottom line: you f#@* with us (like Iran and Syria, fighting a proxy war and killing our soldiers) we launch the Air Force bombers and nuke your population centers, period… if you are a “moderate” citizen of the terrorist state, you may wish to do whatever is necessary to take down the terrorists running your country immediately, or pay the price… which is what GW promised but did not deliver by saying we would “come after you” if you harbor terrorists.
Jun 6, 2008 - 7:08 am Colby:Just because you make up statistics doesn’t make it true Jeff.
Jun 6, 2008 - 7:08 am Steamboat Jack:Jackie Fisher was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty around WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Fisher,_1st_Baron_Fisher#In_folklore_and_popular_culture
The man was vocal in his opinions and didn’t understand any part of “Politically Correct”.
I read a quote of his some years ago, but I can’t find it now. If someone can give me a source, I appreciate it.
Jackie had been appointed to a conference on making warfare more humane. His quote was something like:
“Make warfare more humane? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. You want to boil your captives in oil and sell their families into slavery, and then they will steer clear of you.”
Regards,
Jun 6, 2008 - 7:43 am Daedalus:Can someone tell me why cluster munitions should be outlawed, but there are no comments about homicide bombers that intentionally maim women and children, point and forget rockets that may hit anywhere in a city and again kill the innocent. Somehow it appears that some people need to rethink about what is really happening in the world today.
Jun 6, 2008 - 9:57 am ramsis:Daedalus:
Jun 6, 2008 - 12:31 pm Tom W.:Better yet how about a ban on Katyusha rockets? I’m having a tough time finding just 1 successful katyusha attack on a military installation.
Here’s my impression of the world:
“I hate you, America! Save me!”
Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.
Jun 6, 2008 - 2:31 pm George:Who cares what 110 other countries decide to do, most don’t do anything to help the US in the first place.
Jun 6, 2008 - 2:42 pm George:and I think that a lot of weapons treaties have more to do with a fear of having an inadaquate national armed force(or already knowing they do) and not wanting to spend the money developing one. Weaker nations banning together….
Jun 6, 2008 - 2:46 pm John Samford:“Or it could be that a recent study of 24 bombed countries found 98% of casualties from cluster munitions are civilians. Mustard gas had a better record than that.”
OK, I give up… What does that statement have to do with anything? If there is any logic there, would you please point it out.
Jun 7, 2008 - 3:08 am Jeff K:BTW, Mustard gas isn’t used anymore because more efficient toxins were invented, NOT because they were outlawed.
CBU’s will be be discontinued when more efficient means of killing civilians are found, not because of any piece of paper.
The most efficent killer of civilians yet discovered is life. The success rate is 100%, which is pretty hard to beat.
“Just because you make up statistics doesn’t make it true Jeff.”
Same goes for the existence of search engines apparently. If you google that sentence you get a page full of results about that 1 study and nothing else.
“OK, I give up… What does that statement have to do with anything? If there is any logic there, would you please point it out.”
I say 98% of cluster munition casualties are civilians and you ask what does that have to do with anything ? What did you think the push to ban them was about, their color ?
Remember that little humanitarian war in Kosovo back in the 90s. Well that left them with an estimated 20000 unexploded cluster munitions as a little goodbye present to the civilian population. The problem with this too will no doubt be just baffling.
Funny thing is, when the kids and the farmers get killed by these unexploded bomblets since the war, they don’t seem too concerned with finding out whether the US, UK or Holland dropped them. It’s almost as if the weapon that killed their kin is the problem. Puzzling stuff.
Jun 7, 2008 - 4:46 am Jamesj:The bottom line is as Sherman said, “war is hell.” It lives in soldiers’ dreams until they die, and sometimes, it kills innocents generations after the fighting.
The screams playing in my head for forty years are like old friends compared to wayward bombs waiting an unlucky person to walk by. Its too bad, but that’s life and death.
Jun 7, 2008 - 7:26 am Joe Y:Actually, I think the treaty is aimed at Israel, to further demonize the country, especially to drive its ally, the US, away.
A typical example: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-attacks-israels-cluster-bomb-use-434096.html
Human, er, Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/17/isrlpa18071.htm
How about banning AK47’s? That’s the weapon more resposible for the misery of the last 30 years than all the rest put together. Of course, that would only help the US and Israel, so it’s off the table.
Jun 7, 2008 - 1:15 pm Smokey:Jeff K:
“…a recent study of 24 bombed countries found 98% of casualties from cluster munitions are civilians.”
OK, I googled that like you suggested, and got ONE study [although the International Leftist Press & Useful Fool Bloggers took that lone “study” and ran with it].
Your so-called ’study’ was done by Handicapped International — which has pages of criticism against the U.S. for not toeing the line and giving up an effective weapon that U.S. soldiers are damn thankful that we have in our arsenal. [Neither China nor Russia are giving up the weapon either, but Handicapped International seems to think that’s understandable, and A-OK with them].
So you can understand it when I say that Handicapped International can take their non-peer reviewed, bogus ’study’ propaganda and shove it. The only thing about their anti-American spin that I don’t understand is: why didn’t they go the extra 2% with their bogus statistics, and claim a 100% civilian casualty rate? It would hardly be less credible.
Folks, keep in mind that agenda-driven organizations with highfalutin’ names like Handicapped International are controlled by the same source as organizations like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which recruited impressionable American college kids during the Spanish Civil War to charge machine gun nests on behalf of the Soviet masters running the A.L. Brigade. Anyone who believes that the collapse of the Berlin Wall ended the Soviet KGB [oh, ’scuse me, it’s the FSB now], need only look at the KGB colonel who’s still running Russia, Vladimir Putin.
Jun 7, 2008 - 5:20 pm John Samford:Jeff K.
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but EVERYBODY dies. You don’t get out of life alive.
Maybe Gallop will poll the dead and see if there was a favorite way to die.
You are missing the point entirely. If threaties would stop anything, THERE WOULD BE NO WAR.
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/kbpact.htm
The Kellog-Briand Pact made war illegal. It was signed in 1928. How many wars has there been since? If this doesn’t show you the futility of treaties, then you are to clueless to bother with.
Jun 7, 2008 - 7:00 pm John Samford:Here is a fact. War almost always kills more civilians then soldiers. If CBU’s don’t get them, something else will.
You no doubt consider me cruel and heartless, I consider you silly and having great hair.
More importantly, I am correct in this matter.
Smokey, Jeff K is what Lenin called “useful fools”. They are famous for making up their minds, THEN considering the facts. Sort of like Alice’s Queen; “Sentence first, trial later”.
That is why Ohhhh…..BAMA the Arab/Muslim candidate for President, does so well among the airheads, moonbats and Liberals (aka useful fools). My current favorite bit ‘o nonsense from the Democrats favorite empty suit is the one about how Iran is to small to be dangerous to America.
How big is an AIDS virus? Not big enough to be daaaangerous, right?
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”*
Jun 7, 2008 - 7:12 pm renomd:*
_Dwight D. Eisenhower
Why all of the focus on cluster munitions. Thermobaric weapons are much more effective in area strikes. A tank might survive a few grenade-like projectiles banging away at its armor, but a pressure wave that bursts its unprotected crew like water balloons seems a bit more effective. By the way, I believe that the Russians are actually ahead of the US in this weapons technology. Coincidence?
Jun 8, 2008 - 1:02 am Javelin:Good to see all the paranoid all American warmongers types here conjuring up conspiracies and feeling sorry for themselves. Such oppression must have really stunted your souls.
Jun 8, 2008 - 12:29 pm J:Let’s not be so hard on Jeff. HI’s numbers may well be true, and in any case, every premature death is a tragedy. What I don’t get is why we’re working so hard on treaties to stop the use of weapons that HI says have killed a little more than 11,000 people instead of negotiating treaties to end things that have killed - and continue to kill - millions of people, and hold their creators and proponents responsible. Things like, say, the general body of collectivist economic theory, or the environmental movement’s anti-DDT effort.
Jun 8, 2008 - 7:54 pm MarkD:Well then, let’s bring back napalm. After all, that’s what the cluster bomb was developed to replace.
Jun 9, 2008 - 8:56 am Laurie:TO ALL THE WARMONGERS……READ TRUTH,IT’S OUT THERE,READ TRUTH IN HISTORY,DO NOT ABANDON INTELLIGENCE AND COMPASSION1 WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? ASK/SEEK TRUTH, IE; WHO SOLD VX NERVE GAS,ANTHRAX STRAIN ( INVENTED IN U.S LABS ACTUALLY)TO SADDAM HUSSEIN? WHO/WHICH COUNTRIES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SHIPPING/DEALING ARMS AND COMPONENTS? ALL GOVT’S ,ALONGSIDE HUGE CORPS! WHO ALLOWS IT ALL TO CONTINUE?…………….WE DO! A PERSON WHO JUSTIFIES ANY HEINOUS WEAPONRY,MAY AS WELL PULL THE TRIGGER THEMSELVES,IT’S THE SAME THING.
Jun 11, 2008 - 4:52 am varun:america is acting as big brother or police whatever we call it,so america
Jun 12, 2008 - 7:19 am RKV:should take the intiative to disarm
the world… as peace lover i want
usa sholuld act in a responsible and should act like a role model.
Varun, You are certifiable.
Plato said it, and it is true “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” Sentiments such as yours will only get us dead, or enslaved.
Jun 16, 2008 - 2:51 pm