US Official: Cluster Bomb Ban Could Hurt ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Humanitarian Work’

[babylonsister]

US Official: Cluster Bomb Ban Could Hurt ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Humanitarian Work’
by Foster Klug


WASHINGTON - A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that a proposed treaty banning cluster bombs would hurt world security and endanger U.S. military cooperation on humanitarian work with countries that sign the accord.

:puke: He sort of looks like Santorum w/a 'stache.

Stephen Mull, an assistant secretary of state, briefed reporters at the State Department to explain why the United States was not attending a gathering in Ireland of representatives of more than 100 nations working on a treaty to ban the bombs blamed for killing or maiming civilians as their mini-bombs explode months or years after they are dropped.

Cluster bombs are fired by cannon or dropped from aircraft and release hundreds of smaller explosives in the air that are supposed to explode upon impact. In Israel’s 2006 war against the Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the bomblets’ failure rate was around 30 to 40 percent, and the United Nations said up to a million unexploded bomblets were left after hostilities ceased.

A critic of the U.S. position, Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview from Dublin that it was outrageous for Mull to link U.S. military humanitarian work with the United States’ “failed policy on cluster munitions.”

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/22/9125/

[C_U_L8R]

1. That's the age old argument...

"all the other kids are doing it"

[babylonsister]

3. Most of the 'other kids' approve of the ban; this screwed up country doesn't. nt

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Yeah, sort of like banning land mines and child fighters.