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US refuses to ban cluster bombs. »
Posted by: Ousama 2 years, 10 months agoThe United States has rejected an international call to ban the use of cluster bombs, despite 46 other countries calling for a ban on the weapons.
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Comments: 96
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bubba2
Feb. 24, 2007, 12:15 p.m.Right ... the Bush admin will not agree to outlaw these horrid weapons because Israel uses them (and did not attend the conference), and we sure don't want to disagree with anything Israel does, now do we?
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LordOfChaos
Feb. 24, 2007, 4:31 p.m.Good - glad to see someone is thinking. Cluster munitions are extremely useful to the military's mission of killing people and breaking things. When our enemies start banning themselves from using certain weapons, then we can.
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NelsonR
Feb. 24, 2007, 5:36 p.m.How else will we, the Bush administration, be able to extend our sphere of influence. The U.S. needs to project our moral authority in the world. The mass killing of terrorist with a few,(many) civilians is of little consequence. Bush speaking, "We are the righteous on the world stage".
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AnvilHead
Feb. 24, 2007, 7:03 p.m.They are designed to be used against troops in the open. Most of the things the bleeding hearts want banned are those weapons that even up the odds in battle. Other nations with millions of troops would like nothing better than to get the US to abandon these weapons.
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eugenegerard
Feb. 24, 2007, 7:25 p.m.War is the # 1 growth industry of the US. You don't want to hurt our "killing" economy do you? Every cable station owned by Murdock is war all the time. What have we become?
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eugenegerard
Feb. 24, 2007, 7:27 p.m.Hey anvilhead, did you enlist? When did you get back from Iraq? You really are into the bloodbath thing.
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eugenegerard
Feb. 24, 2007, 8:07 p.m.What side would you be on if a tank came rumbleing down your subdivision street? What side would you be on if your whole street was immolated by cluster bombs? I think the bloodthirsty people in this country should start putting their feet in other people's shoes. Sanity may begin to make a comeback.
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1-2-Oscar
Feb. 24, 2007, 10:14 p.m.It is difficult for anyone who has participated in war to imagine that some deadly weapons are considered "more humane" than others. Cluster bombs have a definite purpose--to kill the guys who are trying to kill our guys. I think that men on the field of battle support that objective wholeheartedly, and I suspect that their families do, too.
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mamasan
Feb. 24, 2007, 10:16 p.m.Of course Bush & Co dont want to ban Cluster Bombs.
Who knows when Isreal will need to use them again as they just did in Lebanon?
Dont want to lose any customers.
Mr President? How do you sleep at night?
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braveone
Feb. 24, 2007, 10:44 p.m.Bush and Co??? a LLC on the side???
anyway, I don't believe the US government has ever let a vote by some arbitrary group outlaw any munitions of our military.
the US GOV does, however abide by the Geneva Conventions, a recognized organization to try and make war just a little more humane
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bobshotme
Feb. 24, 2007, 11:22 p.m.America's military goes out of its way to keep innocent people from dying in wars, to the point more american soldiers die BECAUSE we are trying not to kill innocents
Cluster bombs are usualy used in open battle fields. Here's an example.. in the middle of the dessert a cluster bomb is good against a group of enemy tanks where innocents are near...thus not dangerous. We usualy dont go around in the middle of city's using cluster bombs, they use those when there arent civilians around.
Bottom line, as long as we use the cluster bombs right, we need to have them.
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old-squid
Feb. 24, 2007, 11:26 p.m.Cluster bombs have another purpose, too. Provide massive amounts of profit for the arms manufacturers.
We sold many of them to Israel which they then used against civilian targets in Lebanon in violation of the agreements we sold them under.
"WASHINGTON - A US investigation has found that Israel probably violated US arms export agreements last year when it dropped US-made cluster bombs among villages in Lebanon, the State Department said Monday.
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The UN says 40 percent (over 400 thousand) of the apple-sized bomblets failed to explode on impact.
Israel has been roundly criticised for its use of cluster munitions during the war with Hezbollah that ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire on August 14.
Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container. The bomblets often do not explode on impact but can do so later at the slightest touch, making them as lethal as anti-personnel landmines."
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contrast
Feb. 25, 2007, 1:42 a.m.an illegal weapon? Kinda redundant no? Ah yes we humans move quickly to weaponize every new technology. we are hard wired to annihilate ourselves. We are at best psychotic apes. At any rate if we need those weapons to conduct our military so be it. When a war is waged it isnt with "legal" weapons it's with blood and guts. outlawing a weapon is almost as easy as punishing a country for having a soldier who bleeds.
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IcCaRus
Feb. 25, 2007, 2:25 a.m.i hafta go with the DoD on this one.. when used as intended these munitions are devastatingly effective. should the day ever come were we face an enemy capable of fielding a million man army or thousands of tanks (i.e. china or russia) we will be damned glad we have these.... certainly better to use these than nukes
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TheTruthIsHere
Feb. 25, 2007, 2:56 a.m.I think we should pass a law in the US that we will never again sign on to any treaty that is supported by the Anti American UN or the International Red Cross, which also hates the US....get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US and revoke all UN treaties....the Red Cross an expressly Marxist, anti-American organization. Those who have hijacked the organization have put their leftist, anti-American politics above their stated mission of comforting those in need. They have decided they serve the despots and terrorists of the world. Not only did they give Saddam a complete pass, but they continue to ignore horrible abuse in the prisons of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has become an agitation operation against American interest for some time, and it should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has followed their work that they are hostile, if not downright contemptuous, of American security concerns and requirements.
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12july
Feb. 25, 2007, 2:53 a.m.Why should a state of TERROR abandon it's terror weapons, if it does it will not be any more!
The power of this state is it's military and economy, which is tumbling now, thanks GOD. They undermined the world request to band land mines to band cluster bombs, depleted uranium and many other subjects like Kyoto treaty. The state was created on blood of the indigenous people of America and slavery of black. This history is shameful is full with terror and unjust. Which, is still practised today against poor and weak countries? Weapons are the money source to this country, why should they abandon it?
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12july
Feb. 25, 2007, 5:53 a.m.Dear civilized world or precisely super civilized world. With all the culture and advance technology and university teaching ethics and human respect. The result is what we all see what this lousy administration is doing to humanity! Totally ignoring anything benefiting humanity they withdraw from Kyoto treaty they refuse to stop producing land mines they do not want to stop cluster bombs or depleted uranium ammunition. What kind of responsibility toward humanity safety is that? That is why I call it The United States of TERROR. The excuse is as the state department says is "cluster bombs have a place in armed conflicts as long as countries follow proper rules of engagement." What kind of an excuse is that? Isn't it a criminal excuse? This State Dep. Want democracy and to protect the world from terror, but from who? They want every one else to stop manufacturing all kind of weapons except them selves and the demolishing state of Israel!
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cherev
Feb. 25, 2007, 6:42 a.m.I would love to see the list of countries that voted for the ban so as to be able to judge where they're coming from.
As to the people who are whining about Israel using cluster bombs, I wonder if you would have the same feelings if the bombs were used by the bloodthirsty, murderous Arab scum against Israel.
The question is rhetorical. I have no doubt at all how you would feel.
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