There is no legal reason the US can’t supply cluster bombs to Ukraine – but that doesn’t justify Biden's decision to do so
There is no legal reason the US can’t supply cluster bombs to Ukraine – but that doesn’t justify Biden's decision to do so
The US administration said that it had received ‘written assurances’ from Ukraine that it would use cluster bombs carefully. Nonetheless, the munition will provide an additional risk to civilians.
Maybe a hot take here but if you're going to engage in a war, whether directly or by supporting an ally with money and supplies, you don't half-ass it. You don't give your ally just enough bullets and fuel to get into the thick of it but leave them hanging when they need to keep going. Whether or not you support the US aiding Ukraine, you have to understand that once that support is given the strategically correct thing to do is to see it through. From the position that we are already engaged in supporting Ukraine, the continuation of that support with the goal of winning is itself justification enough to match the ante in response to your opponent raising it.
A number of factors would make that different. For example if we reached a point where our support started to become detrimental to our readiness to defend ourselves (which, despite arguments from the far right to the contrary, we are not remotely close to doing). Or if Ukraine showed a reapted track record of attacking civilians with our munitions. Or if the war was a losing or lost prospect or this was an escalation on Ukraine's side. But none of those things are the case. Ukraine has not gone out of their way to attack civilians and has in fact fought essentially exclusively a defensive war, they are doing quite well at it and still control their own fates, and Russia escalated to cluster munitions first. This is only a response in kind. With all those factors taken into account, the decision to provide these munitions is justified simply by the fact that they make Ukraine's odds of winning, and winning sooner, better. If Ukraine starts bombing civilians with them then we can discuss whether or not it was the right thing to do. But their track record so far suggests they have no intention of flipping this to an offensive war. Whatever Russian sites they attack on Russian soil can be assumed to be military targets that pose a direct threat to Ukraine and nothing more until proven otherwise.
How about fuck Russia.
given how they're practically used it's not particularly likely that cluster munitions are going to disproportionately harm Russians―essentially by design (and not dissimilar to the mining Russia is doing in parts of Ukraine), cluster munitions can't and don't work like that―so i think if you lean on that to justify this that's a pretty weak justification.
Point 1: Russia already used them in Ukrainian kindergartens and hospitals
Point 2: if Russia has an issue with this then they can try leaving. Honestly as far as I'm concerned they can have chemical weapons too, if Russia has an issue with that then they can try leaving.
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They are using the cluster warheads to make small drone bombs
Nope. You are wrong! https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/04/21/us-congress-bans-cluster-bomb-exports "new legislation signed into law by President Obama on March 11 permanently bans nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States" It seems that export of such wepons is illigal by US law. The only exeption by that law will be un cluster bombs with less than 1% dud rate.
doesn't apply here, unfortunately. that law was waived by Biden as part of the process here, and has previously been waived by Trump in other circumstances:
A 2009 U.S. law bans exports of American cluster munitions with bomblet failure rates higher than 1%, which covers virtually all of the U.S. military stockpile. Biden waived prohibitions around the munitions, just as his predecessor Donald Trump did in 2021 to allow the export of cluster munitions technology to South Korea.
Is that even a legitimate thing to do? Shouldn't he seek congress aproval for that? It is a law after all. It reminds me when Trump said he declassified all these documents he cought with just becaus he said so, but in reality he didn't go thought the official process to do so. I might also be wrong but currently it seems to me Biden is breaking a US law.