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.
Which is another reason the anti-American angle which is part and parcel of the treaty’s theater is particularly disgusting. On May 23rd treaty “activists” accused the US of “bullying” behavior:”
“The United States is trying to bully its allies into weakening a treaty banning cluster bombs, Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a campaign against landmines, said on Friday (May 23).”
Yeah, great populist poke there, Jody of The Nobel Prize. Such a hard blow at the big, bad Yankee bully. Wow. How gutty.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s brief May 31 story on the treaty opens with “Negotiators of a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs predicted the pact will make it too politically painful for the United States ever to use the weapons again.” China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Israel have also refused to agree to the treaty, but the US is, as usual, the main rhetorical target.
In part this is a legacy of the Cold War where the unilateral disarmers largely focused on the US; kicking the US cost them zip politically and they had no influence at all over the Communist totalitarians. The US, its critics to the contrary, remains the most benign global power that has ever existed, so piquant displays of self-righteousness by activists and hypocrites still have no downside. In fact, the posture guarantees headlines and headlines attract donors. “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” the kid said to his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson — but aye, kid; headlines attract donors, and build egos, too.
A cheap shot? The “international community” has pulled this trick for decades, and a lot of Americans are sick and tired of it. (In fact, Rudy Guiliani made a point of mentioning the end of “cost free” anti-Americanism in a September 2007 article in Foreign Affairs:
“Too many people denounce our country or our policies simply because they are confident that they will not hear any serious refutation from our representatives. The American ideals of freedom and democracy deserve stronger advocacy. And the era of cost-free anti-Americanism must end.”
Consider China, which did not sign the land mine treaty or the cluster munitions convention. The China of today is not Mao’s China; in fact, the Sichuan earthquake disaster is proving to be another measure of China’s increasing openness. Chinese openness bodes well for peace, but as StrategyPage noted in March 2007 regarding the landmine treaty see here), Chinese cynicism over arms control continues, this time with a capitalist twist.
“Renewed international efforts to ban cluster bombs was welcomed by Chinese arms manufacturers. When landmines were banned by international treaty, a document China did not sign , China instantly got a much larger share of the landmine market. They expect the same thing to happen if the cluster bomb treaty is signed.”
Too harsh? Perhaps– but it serves as another warning that “feel good” diplomatic display often does little good in the killing fields. (Hey, Sudan signed the land mine treaty.) As for the argument that “the harder the war the harder the peace,” it holds when democracies win, and continued suffering caused by unexploded ordnance isn’t merely a continuing political problem but a lingering evil. This is why use of any explosive weapon ought to be judicious and rare.
As it is, a new generation of cluster munitions is already appearing, “smart” and “smarter” clusters that can strike more precisely (which means ostensibly it takes fewer sub-munitions to be effective). The “smarter” bomblets can “self-deactivate.” But self-deactivation alone doesn’t exempt a cluster munition under treaty guidelines. Besides, some frustrating percentage of the smartest widgits always fail. Even a cluster munition which meets all of the exemption characteristics described in treaty Article 2-2 will blow up and take an innocent life, the same way unexploded ordnance from World War One occasionally kills a French farmer.
As it is, the treaty appears to have some loopholes that disturb its more fervent advocates. But the biggest loophole is unspoken, so I’ll speak it: what stops Eritrea from immediately using cluster munitions if Ethiopia threatens to breakthrough at Badme (or vice versa) and what mechanism prevents Sudan’s noxious government from using them against its numerous tribal and political enemies in southern and western Sudan.
The answer? Why, the outrage of “the international community” of course. The same one that has been so damn effective in stopping genocide in Darfur.
Ultimately, the cluster munitions treaty is political drama –with a degree of moral weight — involving well-intentioned idealists, some decent-sort diplomats, scores of cynics, and scads of liars. UN Security Council Resolutions 686 and 687, which suspended Desert Storm, also had moral weight, but they didn’t prevent Saddam from killing at least 50,000 Shia Arabs in March and April 1991.
I sincerely wish the idealists and the decent-sorts the best, and I support their efforts to remove unexploded munitions and compensate victims of cluster munitions, though when we discover an Al Qaeda terrorist has been recompensed I expect the idealists and decent-sorts to make certain the abusive bastard returns his payout.
Yet along with sincere wishes I also think of William Tecumseh Sherman, the tough general who fought a truly destructive war of liberation and the reflective man who told a gathering of cadets in 1879 “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”
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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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27 Comments
1. 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 2. 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 3. 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 4. 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 5. Colby:Just because you make up statistics doesn’t make it true Jeff.
Jun 6, 2008 - 7:08 am 6. Austin Bay Blog » Cluster Munitions and Consequences:Iraq:[...] Pajamsmedia has an article of mine covering the cluster munitions treaty. [...]
Jun 6, 2008 - 7:08 am 7. 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 8. 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 9. ramsis:Daedalus:
Jun 6, 2008 - 12:31 pm 10. 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 11. 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 12. 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 13. 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 14. 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 15. 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 16. 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 17. 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 18. 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 19. 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 20. 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 21. 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 22. 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 23. 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 24. 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 25. varun:america is acting as big brother or police whatever we call it,so america
Jun 12, 2008 - 7:19 am 26. 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.
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