BAN the (Cluster) BOMB!

Friends,

One has to wonder what kind of person sits around designing any one of the many diabolical weapons systems with which the world's armies go around killing people, particularly weapons like cluster bombs. Any kind of bomb is bad in my book. But cluster bombs are particularly diabolical in that by their very nature, design and use, they end up killing and injuring many more civilians (and particularly children) than enemy soldiers.

If you have never seen one in action - and I hope you never do - you are lucky. You must not live in one of the more than two dozen places where they have been used, such as Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Laos, or Kosovo. Cluster bombs are sometimes referred to as indiscriminate killers; but I would disagree with that assessment. By the very design of the bomblets and their high failure rate, meaning that a large percentage of bomblets do not immediately explode, they are attractive to children who, out of a natural curiosity, pick them up. The results are almost always tragic. They are, in a very real sense, selective killers.

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that in Laos, where the United States dropped loads of cluster bombs until 1973, as many as 11,000 people have been killed or injured.

Real world failure rates for cluster bombs are as much as 30%, and one cluster bomb can contain as many as 2000 bomblets. Do the math!!! Try and picture an area the size of two football fields littered with unexploded bomblets. But instead of well mowed football fields, they are in farmers' fields or in and around villages, and are often difficult to spot.

Getting back to the high failure rate, I don't understand how companies that produce some of the most sophisticated weapons systems can produce a weapon that is such a lemon. Or is it??? Could it be that cluster bombs are actually intended to leave behind many unexploded bomblets in order to keep on killing and maiming? Whatever the intent, it is clear that cluster bombs must be banned, and that is just what the Convention on Cluster Munitions (that was signed in Oslo this last December by 92 nations) will do once ratified.

To get an idea of what life might be like with landmines and cluster bomblets littering our streets, parks and playing fields, watch this YouTube video.

The United States (under the Bush Administration) refused to sign the cluster bomb treaty, but Congress and President Obama just permanently banned the export of nearly all cluster munitions! And now we can help Congress pass the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009 (S. 416/H.R. 981) that would block use of cluster munitions (by U.S. forces) that leave behind more than one percent of bomblets as duds, and any use in areas where civilians live. It isn't a total ban, but it IS a huge step in that direction.

CLICK HERE to read more about cluster bombs and learn how to participate in the National Call-In Day on March 30th. We want to flood Congressional offices with calls telling them to pass the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act. You can also CLICK HERE to send an email to your senator, and CLICK HERE to email your Representative.

The U.S. has been the World's biggest user of cluster munitions. We are on the verge of joining the nations that have already signed the Convention (and leading by example for a change), and perhaps one day the use of cluster munitions will be only a bad memory. Let's make that happen.

Peace,

Leonard

Photo Credits:
Child cluster bomb victim: http://aftermathnews.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/cluster-bomb-victim.jpg

NO MORE WAR!

Dear Friends,

Killing is wrong. Waging war is failure (on many levels). And, the weapons we create to fight wars are evil.

The Israelis have not yet used cluster bombs (which they used extensively in Lebanon in 2006) in Gaza. Instead, they are using another atrocious weapon, white phosphorous, that, when used in densely populated areas, can cause the most horrific burns and ignite anything that is remotely capable of burning. For a more through explanation of white phosphorous, click here.

What is so tragic is that while most nations have agreed to ban cluster bombs - the U.S. did not even send a representative to the December, 2008 meeting in Oslo, Norway where 94 countries signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions - white phosphorous is not covered by any weapons convention (chemical or otherwise). Of course, when the U.S. finally admitted (after repeated denials) in 2005 that it had used white phosphorous in Iraq, the Department of Defense (defending what???) stated that it was used to produce "obscuring smoke".

Speaking of smoke screens, the Israelis (having learned well from the Americans) have claimed they are not using white phosphorous in Gaza, although photos clearly show evidence of it in use. The Israelis claim that "any munitions that Israel is using are in accordance with international law." Whether using white phosphorous or just plain bombs and missiles, indescriminate killing of civilians doesn't cut it in terms of international humanitarian law. It is morally and legally wrong!

While nations spend a great deal of time, as well as human and financial resources to determine what weapons (and how those weapons) can be used in warfare, would it not be far more productive to spend that time and resources in determining why we even condone war at all?

The eve of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is a good time to consider not how we will fight wars in order to reduce civilian suffering and death, but how we will eradicate war altogether from our world so that one day "war" will be merely a word in the dictionary of archaic terms. We can honor Dr. King's vision of The World House, this great big house we have inherited, where "black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu" must learn to live together in peace or face extinction, by working to end ALL war.

All of us who are dedicated to a peaceful world can play a role by continually driving home the message to our nations' leaders that War Is Not the Answer (to quote my Quaker Friends). We must show that if war is not the answer, that we know what the answer is. The Quakers have articulated an answer quite well, and a good place to learn about (and get engaged in the) prevention of violent conflict is at the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

So make a promise tomorrow on the holiday honoring Dr. King that you will work to bring an end to war (or continue to work for it), and then make a plan for yourself and get started. There is no time to waste!

Peace,

Leonard

Note: Photo courtesy of CNN.com