Posted on 07/08/2023 4:53:20 AM PDT by Libloather
Key Democratic lawmakers are breaking with President Joe Biden over the controversial decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine, arguing that providing the weapons, which are banned by more than 120 countries, cedes the moral high ground and will end up indiscriminately killing civilians.
Top Democrats on the House Rules Committee and the panels that fund the Pentagon and State Department lashed out in rare public statements broadcasting their break with their party’s president.
“The decision by the Biden administration to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is unnecessary and a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Mo.), the ranking member of the House’s defense appropriations subcommittee. “The legacy of cluster bombs is misery, death and expensive cleanup generations after their use.”
“These weapons should be eliminated from our stockpiles, not dumped in Ukraine,” she added.
Cluster bombs, officially called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, are designed to take out multiple military targets by scattering large numbers of small “bomblets” over a wide area. They are banned by most NATO countries because the ordnance that fails to explode can end up killing civilians, even long after conflict has ended.
The Democratic lawmakers noted that Congress has barred the transfer of any cluster munition with a “dud rate” of greater than 1 percent, though Biden can waive the rule.
Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday that officials will “carefully” select only the rounds with lower dud rates, for which there is recent testing, to send to Ukraine. The U.S. has large numbers of cluster bombs sitting in storage, which officials argue will help Ukraine break through dug-in Russian lines as Kyiv is rapidly running out of conventional ammunition.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Named
Russia has erased entire Ukrainian cities with artillery and phosphorus munitions that cause horrible burn deaths.
Now some post modern conservatives just can’t to wait to jump into bed with the worst of the Democrat Marxist Party in support of the Kremlin’s latest genocidal war on Ukraine. Hilarious.
“Now some post modern conservatives just can’t to wait to jump into bed with the worst of the Democrat Marxist Party in support of the Kremlin’s latest genocidal war on Ukraine. Hilarious.”
Hyperbole much?
I gather you are saying it was “that time of the month”.
Their problem is believing that the decision had absolutely anything to do with brandon...
They aren't illegal. Some nations shun them, not all.
It is an excellent weapon.
Cluster Munitions to Ukraine.
The gift that keeps on giving....
For Decades after the war has ended.
Assuming we all aren’t destroyed by global Nuclear War and the Ukraine war actually ends, the cluster munitions JoeBama wants to give Ukraine, will, in the long term. likely end up maiming or killing more Ukrainian peasants than they do Russian troops and machines.
I sure wouldn’t want to be a Ukrainian Farmer plowing my fields that are currently battlefields, or a Ukranian child playing in the woods that are now providing concealment for ‘ruzzian troops’.
Oh, I was just following the meaning Psaki and the Biden administration gave when Russia used them. If they were lying, and I inadvertently went along, I’m sorry.
The nations that are against them are the ones without air power. They can’t deliver them.
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