Cluster Bombs Ban

So you may or may not have heard about the recent dispute about the banning of cluster bombs. If you are like most people and don't know exactly what a cluster bomb is, it's simply a large bomb that is launched (from the ground, or more often dropped from a plane) that breaks into many tiny "bomblets" before it hits the ground. These spread out and cover a large area, and from the military point of view, they are very useful for "taking out dispersed ground targets," in other words, killing a lot of people who are standing far apart from eachother.

The controversy lies in the fact that a large amount of cluster bombs, from 10 to 40 percent, do not detonate when they are supposed to. They merely land on the battlefield, then are forgotten in the heat of conflict and left there. Years later, they can be set off by being touched, which is a huge risk to civilians, particularly children who don't know better than to pick up a bomb. You could just google image "cluster bomb victims", and there will be hundreds of hits. I didn't include any pictures because I didn't want to force anyone to look at the reality, but if you aren't squeamish, just look at the pictures and see how horrible the weapons really are.

This debate draws a parallel with the prior controversy over landmines, which many countries agreed to ban with the Ottawa Treaty, which took effect in 1999. But guess which country is not a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty, and has already shown resistance to the recent effort to ban cluster bombs. That's it, the good old US of A. The American urge to have the world's strongest military, no matter the monetary or moral cost, is yet again keeping us from banning a weapon that does serious harm to civilians, many years after a conflict is over. An estimated 300 people die every year in Vietnam from cluster bombs that were dropped by the United States. I'm honestly not sure whose decision it is to ban them or not, if it's just an executive call, or if something must be passed in Congress, or what. But I would like to know who it is that is keeping our country on the list of those who continue to use weapons notorious for harming civilians.

Here's what you can do to help: sign online petitions. I'm sure there are many sites out there that have petitions going, but I'll only post the link to one. It takes less than twenty seconds to put down your name, zip code, email, and some other little bits of info. By adding yourself to the list of people against cluster bombs, you will help send a message to the world's governments that the citizens of the US will not stand for allowing the continued use of weapons that kill innocent people years after being dropped. And if you like cluster bombs or don't care, just don't sign. As always, it doesn't take any effort to keep things the way they are, it only takes work to change them.

To sign the petition:
http://www.clusterbombs.org/i-want-to-sign/

To learn more:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/19/cluster.bombs/#cnnSTCText