Needs Must

[poliphilo]

 I thought we had all agreed that cluster bombs were a particularly vile and nasty weapon and should be banned...

But that was then and this is now and apparently Ukraine "needs them". 

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

I don't understand this. Why do we even have them to give? But there was an official report last week (!) that we have finished destroying all our chemical weapons, so maybe the cluster bombs were in the back of a closet somewhere, ready to be pulled out and given away.

[poliphilo]

Someone thought, "Maybe these will come in useful some day..."

They're filthy things.

[tagryn]

That Rubicon was apparently crossed...well, it was never *not* crossed, at least in the current war. The Russians use them regularly, and the Ukrainians use them from time to time; neither were signees to the 2008 ban. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_cluster_munitions_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

If one wants to argue whether there's any significant difference between cluster bombs and chemical weapons/WMDs morally, there's probably a point to be made there. My surprise is more that WMDs haven't been used in Ukraine to date, than that cluster munitions have, given the other parallels to World War I warfare there...

[poliphilo]

The particular evil of cluster bombs is that they can hang around go on killing and maiming for generations. Does this put them in a special category? I think it probably should.

[tagryn]

Better analogy might be mines, then? The technology used to spread mines in the current conflict has gone places it never has before as well ( https://www.armyrecognition.com/ukraine_-_russia_conflict_war_2022/russian_army_deploys_in_ukraine_its_new_isdm_zemledeliye_mine_mine-laying_system.html ). Whoever "wins", or at least is left with the land, will have decades of demining ahead of them.

[poliphilo]

It saddens me how much creative energy we spend on clever ways of killing one another.

[bleodswean]

It defies every. single. thing we've been told and have been instructed to TRUST. It's a huge betrayal.

[poliphilo]

I put no trust in any human being pretending to authority unless they can demonstrate how or why they should be trusted.

"By their deeds shall ye know them".

[conuly]

Well, that's just peachy.