🇺🇦 🇷🇺 U.S.-supplied cluster munitions are destroying #Russian positions in areas where #Ukrainian troops had struggled to advance, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 8.
It only took one term for Biden - who voted for the Dubya Bush's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan - to become a war criminal on par with Bush and Blair. Even Agent Orange, for all his many, many flaws, was not (as far as I'm aware) a war criminal. This cross-party panel don't all agree on much, but they all agree that cluster bombs are immoral and unjustified, in Ukraine or anywhere:
This outside of my usual fact checking, seeing as it isn’t medical at all, but for the record, Russia has been using cluster munitions in Ukraine this whole time. There are thousands and thousands of videos of MLRS cluster munition casings, the cluster bombs themselves, and the characteristic damage patterns. This isn’t some open question.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan defends the Biden administration’s decision to send cluster munitions, banned in more than 100 countries for the risk they pose to civilians, to Ukraine as part of a military aid package. NBC News reports: https://flip.it/wK6Nbs #Ukraine#UkraineWar#USA#ClusterBombs
Cluster bombs are the horrible things that keep killing. they are dreadful, mangling things
"that kill and maim children"
and other innocents for decades and decades after the fighting has ended.
high dud rate ensures that if they don’t kill or disfigure anyone when they’re first fired, they’ll do so years later when someone happens to be unlucky enough to stumble across them.
US President Joe #Biden has landed in the UK ahead of a #Nato summit in #Lithuania later this week - which comes after several allies questioned his call to send cluster bombs to #Ukraine.
The #UK and #Canada are among those who voiced concern about supplying the #clusterbombs, which are widely banned because of the danger they pose to civilians.
The US says they are needed because Ukraine's weapon stocks are dwindling. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66146457
Biden says that #ClusterBombs will not be used in civilian areas. We are almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century and we still have transparently stupid politics! Does Biden know that #Ukraine is a civilian country? It's not a failed state with stateless actors. #Russian invaded the civilian nation and cities of civilian country. He is being mind-numbingly stupid. Is that the tactic?
#ClusterBombs Just imagine if #Zelensky were to stand up and say:
"We thank you for the offer, but we must decline these terrible weapons. Even in our darkest hour, even in our most dire need, we can never, we must never, use them."
The US would be a little bit pissed. The rest of the world would fall at his feet, weeping at the sheer nobility of Ukraine. Much more powerful than the munitions.
"Providing #Ukraine with #clusterbombs could serve to destigmatize them and runs counter to international efforts to end their use. And that, in turn, could encourage – or excuse – their use by other states that may be less responsible." Here’s a look at what international law says about them:
At least, that's the impression I get from the many Ukrainian social media accounts I follow.
Their grievances come down to a perceived 'both sides-ism', where these organisations choose to be tough and/or unhelpful towards Ukraine and too lenient towards #Russia
The most recent example are the comments of #HRW arguing against Ukraine's wish for #ClusterBombs whereas Russia has been using this type of #ammunition since day one.
I am deeply disappointed by this news. As much as I'm sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause, the use of cluster bombs (that kill civilians for years after they are dropped) is by definition a war crime.
Ukraine shouldn't be using them, and the US shouldn't be providing them.