Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

It ought to be good news, wonderful news, in fact. The BBC reports that more than 100 of the world's countries have agreed to ban the current designs of cluster bombs.

Just one problem. The United States, Russia and China are opposed. No surprise. They are the biggest producers of these weapons. Indeed, they didn't even show up at the 10-day conference in Dublin to make their case. Just thumbed their noses at the whole affair. The three prefer voluntary (read: laughable) controls as well as voluntary efforts to clean up millions of these bomblets, which kill or maim civilians from Cambodia to Lebanon, sometimes years, even decades, after they are dropped.

Cluster bombs are delivered by artillery or aircraft. Each releases hundreds of mini-bomblets that are supposed to explode upon impact. But failure rates are immense. For instance, when Israel and Hezbollah went to war in southern Lebanon two years ago, as many as 40 percent of the bomblets failed. Perhaps a million of these lethal explosives remained scattered around after the fighting stopped. When they do explode, chances are close to 50-50 that they will kill a child aged 5 to 15.

In addition to the Cheney-Bush Administration's opposition to any international ban, the Pentagon is trying to keep Congress from passing the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act. So far, that effort has succeeded. The bill, S. 594, was introduced 16 months ago by Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Mikulski. It has 18 co-sponsors. Neither Sen. Clinton nor Senator Obama have joined them. The bill states:

No funds appropriated or otherwise available to any Federal department or agency may be obligated or expended to use, sell, or transfer any cluster munitions unless--

(1) the submunitions of the cluster munitions have a 99 percent or higher functioning rate;

(2) the policy applicable to the use, or the agreement applicable to the sale or transfer, of such cluster munitions specifies that the cluster munitions will only be used against clearly defined military targets and will not be used where civilians are known to be present or in areas normally inhabited by civilians; and

(3) not later than 30 days after such cluster munitions are used, the President submits to the appropriate congressional committees a plan, including estimated costs, for cleaning up any such cluster munitions and submunitions which fail to explode and continue to pose a hazard to civilians ...

ScottyUrb reminds me that the companion bill in the House, with 27 co-sponsors, is here.

Next time you talk with or e-mail one of your Senators or Representatives, or your favorite presidential candidate, request that they co-sponsor this bill.

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