Canada has joined 45-other nations in approving a declaration calling for a treaty by 2008 to ban the use of cluster bombs. Our representative joined it, it seems, because the Oslo meeting held no formal vote and the declaration basically has no teeth.
Now we should watch and see what Harpo does to stop these horribly misused weapons. Will he speak openly against them? Will he castigate countries that use them - far off nations like the US and Britain? Will he demand that the US clean up the millions of unexploded cluster bomblets that still litter the Laotian countryside? Or will he, once again, stay true to form as our Furious Leader and "arse-licker of Satan" and stay conveniently mute?
Still just joining in was a good, first step - if we mean it.
2 comments:
You must remember, that the point of these treaties is not to get the USA to go along. They won't. They never will. Why? Because the Senate has to approve treaties.
Just as in the case of landmines, the USA thinks there are legitimate uses for cluster bombs. There are (area denial, troop assembly points). The largest objection to the bombs is that unexploded bomblets are left over after the conflict.
That objection leads to just one conclusion, instead of abandoning this weapon which has been proven useful, make more effective ones.
Here's the conclusion - get the countries that have littered civilian areas with the damned things to act like decent human beings and clean up their devastation. Another conclusion is to hold them liable as criminals for using weapons like these in civilian areas. It's not the legitimate use of these weapons that's the problem. It's that the guys who have them don't pay much heed to that distinction.
Post a Comment