On September 6, 2006, the Senate voted on S.Amdt. 4882 to H.R. 5631. What was the purpose of this bill?
To protect civilian lives from unexploded cluster munitions.
This amendment would have banned the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas and refugee camps. Senator Obama voted to ban the use of cluster bombs. Senator Clinton voted to preserve the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas and refugee camps. One candidate did the right thing, the other did not. We have seen Senator Clinton vote the wrong way on bills before - Iraq, Kyl-Lieberman, the Bankruptcy Bill, etc. Each time she has responded with an excuse - she's given us her reasoning for her votes. In my opinion her excuses have been poor, her reasoning faulty. But what excuse could Senator Clinton possibly give us for voting to preserve the use of cluster bombs?
None.
How do cluster bombs work? Handicap International has a step by step process you can see, but basically, A cluster bomb gets dropped from a plane. Each bomb carries hundreds of smaller bomblets that are released after a time - "at an altitude between 100m and 1000m." These smaller bomblets cover a wide area and will explode when they hit a target. Within each smaller bomblet are fragments, shrapnel, etc. These cause great damage and can travel quite a distance as a result of the initial explosion. According to "Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions", Civilians constitute 98% of all recorded cluster submunitions casualties. Of that number, 1/3 of the victims are children.
Hillary Clinton voted to allow cluster bombs in civilian areas and refugee camps. That's not just a lack of judgment. That's a lack of fundamental humanitarian values.
There are many consequences that result from the use of cluster bombs. You can read about all of them here, but let's just take a look at the human consequences of cluster bombs (emphasis mine):
Human Consequences
* People - mainly children - lose lives and limbs through cluster bombs every day.
The fragments of exploding submunitions travel at high velocity. When they strike they set off people pressure waves within the body, which do horrific damage to soft tissue and organs. Even a single fragment can rupture the spleen, or cause the intestines to explode. If a victim survives the accident, they may suffer from a variety of injuries including loss of limbs, burns, puncture wounds, ruptured eardrums, and blindness.
* A weapon more likely to kill than maim the victim
* A weapon designed to terrorise
* Psychological trauma for the victim and his/her family
* Orphaned children
* Increase in the number of disabled people in impoverished countries
Cluster bombs can do damage decades after they are dropped in an area, according to this video:
The International Community is taking action - without the United States. The result of the Wellington Conference was positive:
After a week of tough diplomatic talks, the voice of survivors and committed states has prevailed and a draft treaty to ban cluster munitions has been endorsed for formal negotiation. The so called "Wellington Declaration" provides the draft treaty text to be negotiated and agreed in Dublin in May 2008 to ban cluster munitions, assist survivors and ensure clearance of their land.
"We are encouraged that the draft agreement was not weakened or compromised over the course of this crucial meeting," said Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, Oxfam New Zealand. "New Zealanders played a significant part in achieving this outcome by expressing their strong support for a clear and unequivocal ban on cluster munitions."
More than 500 representatives from 122 governments as well as campaigners and survivors of cluster bombs from 38 countries gathered in New Zealand for the penultimate meeting of the Oslo Process. Link
Of course, it was only positive as a result of the vast majority of countries standing up to 9 countries who wished to make exceptions for the United States to continue using them. Apparently we lobbied these 9 countries to help us a bit - because President Bush thinks it's a-okay to use cluster bombs to kill civilians and refugees.
The International Red Cross believes a cluster bomb ban should be enacted immediately.
Nobel Peace Prize winner,Jody Williams, believes we need to act immediately - and that the United States should stop stalling.
Heather Mills is a Goodwill Ambassador for Adopt A Minefield. Back on August 14, 2004, she did an interview with Larry King, transcript here, about the loss of her own leg due to a motorcycle accident, and her work to help clear mines and help survivors. During the interview the audience is introduced to Zeynab, an 11-year-old Iraqi. Here's part of the transcript (I've cut quite a bit here to avoid too much Larry King):
KING: We're back on this special edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Remaining with us from London is Lady Heather Mills McCartney, the human -- humanitarian and activist in artificial limbs and landmines and getting rid of them and helping so many people around the world.
Joining us now is Zeynab, the 11-year-old who lost her right leg above the knee when a cluster bomb fell on her home near Basra, Iraq. Zeynab will be speaking through an interpreter.
Also in London is Bob Watts. Bob is the renowned London prosthetist -- I hope I'm pronouncing that right -- who fitted Zeynab and Lady Heather with their prosthetic limbs.
Zeynab, we'll start with you. How did this happen? What happened that you lost your leg?
ZEYNAB, 11-YEAR-OLD, LOST LEG WHEN BASRA HOME WAS BOMBED (through translator): It happened during the war. She was in Basra, and then they evacuate Basra from these women and children to a nearby village, which is safe for them, you know, mosque area. There was (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and then it was safe for them. And after that, American airplanes came in, bombed that area, and she didn't feel anything, only explosion, and then when she -- one day they just transferred her to the hospital, she was awake, she woke up and they told her that the situation of her leg was so, so bad, and they tried to make her a vascular (ph) repair for her artery, but it fell down, and then they amputated her leg, and she said that's what I do to lose my leg, and all the children in that war.
KING: What happened to her family? ZEYNAB (through translator): She said that 17 from her family, uncles, aunts and cousins, all of them just died by this cluster bomb, and only she was the survivor from that misery and with her -- apart from her father, only.
On Feb. 28th, Senator Clinton wrote about child poverty over at Huffington Post. She said:
Marian Wright Edelman, my friend and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, says it best: "If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much."
In my 35 years as an advocate for children and families, I have never met a child without potential. But I've met plenty of children growing up in extraordinary hardship and lacking the basic tools they need to succeed. Even in the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, 13 million children still live in poverty and 5 million live in extreme poverty. Too many children are expected to overcome these hurdles, become productive citizens, and compete in a modern global economy without the benefit of sound schooling, decent housing, proper nutrition, and adequate health care.
Since when is a vote to allow cluster bombs in civilian areas and refugee camps "standing up for children" - when 1/3 of those killed by cluster bombs are children.
Do your part - Click here to Adopt a Minefield and help clear mines and aid survivors.