General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsU.S. Shipping Thousands of Cluster Bombs to Saudis, Despite Global Ban
U.S. Shipping Thousands of Cluster Bombs to Saudis, Despite Global Ban
By John Reed, Noah Shachtman Friday, August 23, 2013
Cluster bombs are banned by 83 nations. The world recoiled in horror when it learned that Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad's forces have killed children with such weapons.
But that isn't stopping the U.S. military from selling $640 million worth of American-made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite the near-universal revulsion at such weapons, and despite the fact that relations between the two countries haven't been entirely copacetic of late.
...
The irony of the U.S. selling one authoritarian Middle East country 1,300 cluster bombs while criticising the use of indiscriminate weapons by another isn't lost on the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international group dedicated to ending the use of such weapons.
"This transfer announcement comes at a time when Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have joined international condemnations of Syria's cluster bomb use," said Sarah Blakemore, director of the Cluster Munition Coalition, in a statement about the sale.
These weapons are loathed because in addition to killing enemy combatants, their fairly indiscriminate nature means they can kill plenty of civilians. And not just in the heat of battle. The little ball-shaped bomblets dispersed by cluster munitions don't always detonate on first impact. Often, they will just sit there on the ground until someone, often a child, picks them up and causes them to explode.
...
Read more: http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/08/22/us_shipping_thousands_of_cluster_bombs_to_saudi_arabia_despite_international_ban
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)but it was locked as not being from a reputable source. Pretty soon we'll be reduced to only sanitized, complicit, US-government approved mainstream sources. And this during an age of massive surveillance and press intimidation when we're involved in another government propaganda effort to get another war on. It's disturbing that these things aren't properly reported in our press and that there's a war going on to shout out discussion based on facts reported by other news sources.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)Selling outlawed weapons to a cruel, despotic regime! Dear God, will we ever learn?
warrant46
(2,205 posts)Nothing to see----move along boy
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)...the USA doesn't belong to the global community and is therefore exempt from its laws. They're in the sales department. Making a profit is required...by god.
.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Death by dismemberment and burns may occur.
cali
(114,904 posts)on cluster bombs and about withholding aid from regimes that perpetrate coups against democratically elected governments, this admin has nothing but contempt for.
Wonder how he feels about that.
Since coming to the Senate, Senator Leahy has been active in the international effort to ban the production, export and use of anti-personnel landmines. In 1992, Senator Leahy wrote the first law enacted by any government to prohibit the export of these weapons. He has worked in Congress to develop programs to assist mine victims, including establishing a special fund in the foreign aid budget. The Leahy War Victims Fund provides $10 million annually to address the needs of disabled victims of conflict, particularly mine victims. Senator Leahy has also worked to establish programs at the State and Defense Departments to support humanitarian de-mining.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)We've got to wrest control back from the Executive because Congress isn't even allowed to represent us anymore. They're locked out, shut out and derided unless the Executive thinks it can get a rubber stamp from them. That's not how it's supposed to work.
Thank you Senator Leahy, it's a good start but I just saw that Feinstein is the co-sponsor and that it's a curb not a ban. Feinstein? I want a total ban. I wish he'd dump Feinstein so he can put some teeth in it.
How can Congress possibly represent us when they never consult us? If it were up to Democratic voters, someone like Leahy would have had all the support he needed to put a ban in place long ago. I'm sorry for mindlessly ranting Cali. This rinse-lather-repeat charade of the Iraq war crime is thoroughly depressing. Thanks for the information on Leahy.
indepat
(20,899 posts)people die or are maimed by banned weaponry the U.S. supplies friendly foreign dictatorships: as long as no 'Murikan is harmed or killed on 'Murikan soil by the evil brown-colored foreign terraist, everything else is cool and hunky-dory.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)is that you can make them to where some of the clusters are set on delay. The first set go off on impact, which brings in first responders, then the next bunch go off.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts).