Cluster Bombs Are Evil

Biden's decision to send them to Ukraine is profoundly immoral.

CNN

Doing evil is part of every significant American politician’s job description. There is simply no way to help guide the American military-industrial complex—or, for that matter, most of the American domestic political apparatus—without participating in obviously immoral conduct.

Joe Biden, as someone who has been at the center of American political life for the past five decades, has had a very long time to marinate his ever-decaying bones in evil, and, if this past week is any evidence, he is still going strong.

I say this because, on Friday, the Biden administration announced that it is sending cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million arms package.

Cluster munitions are, straightforwardly, evil. From the Cluster Munition Coalition (emphasis mine):

Cluster munitions are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground or sea, opening up in mid-air to release tens or hundreds of submunitions, which can saturate an area up to the size of several football fields. Anybody within the strike area of the cluster munition, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured.

And that’s just what they do when they work as intended. When they don’t, which is very frequently, they sit on the ground indefinitely—literally ticking time bombs waiting to explode when someone is unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. There are people in Laos and Cambodia who are still being killed to this day because of unexploded cluster munitions dropped by the United States during the Vietnam War. They are a savage, indiscriminate weapon, which is why their use has been banned by over 100 countries. But the United States considers itself above such concerns. It has refused to join the international treaty banning cluster bombs. Conveniently, Russia and Ukraine have also declined to join the treaty.

This legal framework didn’t stop then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki from warning in 2022 that any use by Russia of cluster bombs in its assault on Ukraine could potentially constitute a war crime. Which, yeah!

As ever, though, when the U.S. does something that would be considered a war crime for another country, such talk evaporates. Here’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday, defending the decision (emphasis mine):

We recognize the cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance. This is why we deferred the decision for as long as we could. But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions, and take more Ukrainian territory, and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery.

This logic—that it is worth using heinous weapons of war in order to turn the tide of a conflict—is the same logic used by supporters of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Echoing the excuses for one of the gravest war crimes in the history of the planet: that is where the Biden administration finds itself in 2023.

Biden himself sounded similar notes in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria which aired on Sunday (emphasis mine):

[It]'s not used in civilian areas. They're trying to get through those trenches and stop those tanks from rolling. And so—but it was not an easy decision. And it's not—we're not signatories of that agreement. But I—it took me a while to be convinced to do it. But the main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now from their—keeping them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas, or they don't. And I think they needed them.

So when the Russians use cluster munitions, it’s potentially a war crime, but when the U.S. provides Ukraine with cluster munitions, it’s a tough but necessary decision. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.

¹

This is especially true in this case because the idea that you can use cluster bombs in some clinical way that avoids civilians being killed is also nonsensical. All you have to do to understand this is look at the entire history of their use in war. In 2021, for instance, 97 percent of the people killed by cluster munitions were reportedly civilians. And cluster bombs have already been causing harm in Ukraine. Just last week, Human Rights Watch issued a report showing that both Russia and Ukraine’s use of cluster bombs had resulted in indiscriminate civilian casualties.

This is one of those very basic red lines you shouldn’t cross. “But Ukraine really wants them!” doesn’t cut it as an excuse. “But we swear we’re gonna use them the right way!” doesn’t cut it. “But Russia bad!” doesn’t cut it. A war crime is a war crime no matter who does it, and the decision to let such a horrifying weapon loose in the world is an act of evil. Simple as that.

1. Just as a side note, Zakaria immediately moved on with no further questions. Tough American journalism, folks!