US insists cluster bombs not bad if used in a compassionate way

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16822789.htm

16 Jan 2008 12:43:57 GMT
Source: Reuters


By Robert Evans

GENEVA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Cluster bombs, which nearly 100 countries are seeking to ban, should not be considered bad as long as states involved in conflicts use them responsibly, a senior United States official said on Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be identified, also told a background briefing that Washington was planning to create a "quick reaction force", or QRF, to handle threats to civilians from remnants of war, like cluster bombs.

The official's remarks, which could not be quoted directly, clearly confirmed that Washington -- like Russia, China and some other powers -- remained opposed to banning the weapon.

He spoke as negotiators on updating a 1981 international agreement on especially dangerous conventional weapons (CCW) met in Geneva to prepare for "expert discussions" on cluster weapons next year under the United Nations umbrella.

Cluster munitions include a variety of weapons that can spread up to hundreds of bomblets over a target area. Up to 30 percent fail to explode, posing a threat to civilians for many years after a conflict.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says some 400 million people in countries and regions like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Russia's Chechnya live in effective minefields, under daily threat of maiming from cluster bombs.

[spanone]

1. we have become a rogue nation...insensitive to human rights..arrogant in our policies

In addition, some cluster bomblets, such as the BLU-97/B used in the CBU-87, are brightly colored to increase their visibility and warn off civilians. However, the color, coupled with their small and nonthreatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys. This problem was exacerbated in the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), when US forces dropped humanitarian rations from airplanes with similar yellow-colored packaging as the BLU-97/B. The rations packaging was later changed first to blue and then to clear in the hope of avoiding such hazardous confusion.
\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_bombs

[EFerrari]

6. We should have known as soon as Junior announced a war ON terror

that he would wage a war OF terror.

[HeraldSquare212]

2. Will they send the QRF to southern Lebanon? nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Oh, good grief!

Using cluster bombs for anything is hardly being compassionate!

They are meant to kill and maim!

:grr:

[Mojambo]

4. This country just flat out cracks me up sometimes. n/t

[EFerrari]

5. They're PLANNING to create a quick reaction force?

These mofos need to go to jail.

Don, do you remember that the food packets they dropped in Afghanistan were the same colors as cluster bombs?

Our military is being run by idiots. It's effen scary.

[Mnemosyne]

41. I'd forgotten this until you mentioned it. 1 million food packets in three and a half weeks.

Food Packets, Unexploded Bombs Easy to Confuse
Pentagon Warning Afghans, Will Change Color of Relief Cartons

U.S. aircraft have dropped more than 1 million food packets in Afghanistan since the start of the air war 3 1/2 weeks ago, Pentagon officials said.

snip>

"If you train people, particularly children, to go after bright yellow packages, they might not know the difference between the cylinders and rectangles," Mr. Bacon said.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador in Pakistan, accused the United States of deliberately dropping cluster bombs in the form of food boxes, according to news reports.

snip>

The Associated Press reported that Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said he was asked to decide where the food drops should occur and told the Pentagon they should only be distributed in otherwise inaccessible areas where no bombs were falling.

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/1039/

I'm sure no one has a clue as to how many cluster bombs were dropped. :grr:

[jeff30997]

7. I would love to...

Slide a Cluster bomb into that stupid Senior United States official's ass and ask him what he REALLY thinks about it.:grr:

[gratuitous]

8. Oh yes, compassionate bombs

As I recall, the cluster bombs we were dropping on Afghanistan were very similar in size and color to the food packages being dropped by aid agencies. Kind of a practical joke, I guess, to show starving refugees that we could josh with them and treat them just like anyone else we were playing a trick on. You know, someone looking for food, and then boom! Oh, what a laugh we'd have, ha, ha, ho!

So, I wonder who this unnamed official is who is clearly not representative of his country's people? So nice of Reuters to hide the war criminal's identity.

[DFW]

9. So, does this mean..........

If someone drops a cluster bomb on the RNC convention this summer,
that it's OK, because it'll just make them all compassionate conservatives?

[killbotfactory]

10. Absurd

Completely absurd.

[MetaTrope]

11. Delicious American treats for the little brown kiddies

[EFerrari]

15. Cynthia was always on top of this sh!t. That's why she had to go.

I met her in October. She's a little person -- her activism makes her look taller on teevee. lol

[bemildred]

12. Responsible to whom?

Is he willing to have the legality of each use of cluster bombs adjudicated by the ICC?

[Mnemosyne]

42. Hey! The US is 'above' the 'trivial' ICC.

Remember idiot wouldn't sign on, someone might try him as a war criminal. CYA in advance.

[Ecumenist]

13. How the hell do you compassionately bomb someone?

It's like saying that someone would strangle someone for their own good...with love and caring, of course.

[hack89]

14. The article never uses the word compassionate

the OP has a misleading headline.

[EFerrari]

16. Not at all. Read this nefarious sentence:

"Cluster bombs, which nearly 100 countries are seeking to ban, should not be considered bad as long as states involved in conflicts use them responsibly, a senior United States official said on Wednesday."

What is the "responsible" use of cluster bombs?

[hack89]

20. Responsible means minimizing or eliminating civilian casualties

In a large scale, conventional war, cluster weapons are vital for destroying large concentrations of troops and armor. They are not appropriate for the types of war we are presently fighting where combatants and civilians are inter-mixed. But they do have a legitimate place on the proper type of battle field.

I have no fucking clue what a compassionate use of a weapon of war is. My point is simply that responsible would have been a better choice for the OP.

[EFerrari]

23. They have a legitimate place on the proper type of battle field? Really?

I have to disagree. I'm not willing to lose either of my two sons to cluster bombs so I expect no other mother would either.

[hack89]

27. If your sons were soldiers then yes, they could be a legitimate target

if they were located in an area with a lot of civilians, the responsible thing would be to not use cluster weapons. If they were in the middle of a desert with a bunch of their fellow soldiers far from civilians then cluster weapons could be used against them.

[EFerrari]

33. You make a legitimate point. Mine is, where does it stop?

What is the threshold where we say killing in this manner is not a go.

Smart bombs? Cluster bombs? Torture? What are we willing to sign off on?

[hack89]

35. That's why elections count.

proper civilian leadership of the military is vital to ensure that they conduct America's wars in accordance with real American morals and values.

[RC]

32. Maybe some one should cluster bomb him, you know like people

Taser each other so they know what it is like? Then he change his tune.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. "We do this because we love them. It hurts us more than it hurts them."

:sarcasm:

[5X]

18. How can you be an official at a briefing,

and not be identifiable or quotable?
Seems to me, the press should out these guy as a matter of course.

[hack89]

21. Then the government will become even more secretive.

when I was in the Navy, I participated in several press briefings where some of the information was not for publication and it was understood that the briefer would not be identified. These background briefs are welcomed by the press as they usually provide a lot of in-depth material and more candid responses to questions. It allows the press to develop a deeper understand of the issue at hand.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. Dismembering children "responsibly". Only the Pentagon or a politician could come up with that.

Orwell would be proud of them.

[DFW]

22. Tom Lehrer sang this in 1965:

What do we do? We send the Marines!
For might makes right,
And till they've seen the light,
They've got to be protected,
All their rights respected,
'Till somebody we like can be elected.

Members of the corps
All hate the thought of war,
They'd rather kill them off by peaceful means.
Stop calling it aggression,
O we hate that expression.
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo.
They love us everywhere we go,
So when in doubt,
Send the Marines!

(from "Send the Marines!" from the album That Was The Year That Was)

[Disturbed]

24. Cluster bombs kill &/or maim civilans, non combatants, as well as

intended targets but the US Govt. Officials don't give a damn about those people.

[rug]

25. So are vaginal teeth.

[Stephanie]

26. Clinton voted against banning these, you know.

It takes a village.

*edit = link > http://prorev.com/2007/12/hillary-clinton-voted-to-continue.html

[madrchsod]

31. of dead children around the world...it`s all about judgement

[tyedyeto]

28. WTF is compassionate about a cluster bomb?

What don't Pentagon officials 'get' about the types of weaponry they are using?

Scenario: The next atomic/nuclear weapon that will be detonated.... the 'powers that be' will ask....was it justified, how many people died or are injured? Is it worth the cost in lives and injuries? Of course, they will answer yes. Just like they do today when 'lesser' munitions are being used against a country.

[RedCappedBandit]

29. It seems to me, after reading that article,

its impossible to use them responsibly.

[madrchsod]

30. cluster bombs the gift that keeps giving...

"From 1964 to 1973 Laos endured one of the most intensive bombing campaigns in history. Over 6 million conventional bombs and over --->100 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos by the US<-----. This was the equivalent of one bombing mission every 8 minutes, 24 hours every day for 9 years."


"In the first 25 years after the war, over 11,000 people have been killed or injured from UXO (unexploded bomb ordinance). 40% of UXO victims are killed outright and many of these victims are children."


http://www.greenheartfoundation.org/bombsaway.html
The GreenHeart Foundation, UXO (unexploded bomb ordinance), Northern Laos bomb removal project bombs away, laos bombing


hillary voted to use cluster bombs....it`s all about judgements.

[countryjake]

34. Why is this not on the Greatest page? Kick and RECOMMEND!

clusterfuck primaries that ignore the Aggressor State of America

[Disturbed]

37. Senators Clinton, Biden, and Dodd.

On September 6, 2006, Senator Feinstein introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill which would have provided that

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.

The amendment was defeated. Among the Democrats voting no were Senator Clinton, Senator Biden, and Senator Dodd. Wouldn't you like to know why these folks, who talk a good game about reforming U.S. foreign policy, voted no?

The good news is that Senator Feinstein has recently introduced her amendment in different form as freestanding legislation. The legislation has two additional provisions, one barring the transfer of cluster bombs with high "dud" rates, the second mandating provision for cleanup.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/obama-voted-to-protect-ci_b_42785.html

[malaise]

36. Compassionate killing

Damn!!

[uppityperson]

38. k&r NEED 1 MORE Rec please to get on greatest.

compassionate bombing? bullshit

[Canuckistanian]

39. Can terrorism can be used in a "compassionate way"?

Because that's what cluster bombs are. They continue to kill people even when NO military conflict exists.

Meant to be used against CIVILIAN targets or to demoralize military targets during RETREAT, cluster bombs are nothing more than high-tech land mines. In fact, they're MORE indiscriminate than land mines in who they kill.

[immoderate]

40. I'm appalled that someone out there is using his cluster bombs irresponsibly!

The very thought! Let's have none of that.

--IMM

[DCKit]

43. What next, analogies about land mines and puppies?

They just done wore out "say anything."

[LeftishBrit]

44. How can one use cluster bombs 'responsibly'?

What is responsible about using these disgusting weapons? They should be banned worldwide:

www.clusterbombs.org

[countryjake]

45. weekend kick

[XOKCowboy]

46. Aren't we a wonderful country. I'm so proud...

that we can parse the use of torture and cluster bombs. The Founding Father's must be so proud.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

47. Depleted uranium makes for a fine crown if you are lacking dental insurance

sorry, can't identify my dentist ;(