Biden Is Monstrously Wrong On Cluster Bombs

His decision to equip Ukraine with these insidious weapons draws wide condemnation. And for good reason.

By Bill Lueders, The Progressive

Here are some words that I have never before strung together: Marjorie Taylor Greene is right. Well, the Republican Congressmember from Georgia is (mostly) right, factually and morally, in her opposition to President Joe Biden’s decision to send potentially hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions to Ukraine.

This is what Greene posted on Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform last week:

The Biden Administration sending cluster munitions to Ukraine may be a war crime. These are dangerous weapons banned by Congress. It is an accelerated aggression that will kill many people. Shame on our leaders that are obsessed with funding and fueling war and death in foreign lands instead of actively negotiating peace.

These are, I think, fair points to make, even while allowing that Greene is against everything Biden does. Cluster bombs are uniquely sinister weapons, designed to spew shrapnel from dozens of smaller grenade-like bombs across large areas. The ones headed for Ukraine can fly about twenty miles before scattering seventy-two baby bomblets meant to detonate over an area a bit larger than a football field. Many of these bomblets can remain unexploded, creating a threat that can linger for years.

“Cluster munitions pose an immediate threat to civilians during conflict by randomly scattering submunitions or bomblets over a wide area,” declares Human Rights Watch, the respected international watchdog group. “They continue to pose a threat post-conflict by leaving remnants, including submunitions that fail to explode upon impact becoming de facto landmines.”

These bomblets may be oddly shaped and colorful, making them especially appealing to children. Research by the Landmine and Cluster Munitions monitor counted 141 casualties from cluster bomb remnants in 2021; all but 3 percent of these were civilians, and two-thirds were children.