The first vote, that authorizing the unilateral invasion of Iraq, regardless of whether it was legal under international law, approved by the United Nations, or whether Iraq constituted an imminent threat to the United States.
Biden, Clinton, and Dodd got that vote wrong, as each has admitted in their own way. Obama, of course, was not in the Senate at the time. But he made his stance on the issue crystal clear--both before and after the vote. Bottom line is that just about everyone in the party--except the DLC--concedes that he was right and they were wrong.
BUT, they say, Obama's made some incredibly foolish statements, like saying he'd go after Al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan with or without the permission of Pervez Musharraf, like saying he'd meet with foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez without demanding concessions ahead of time, and stating that he wouldn't use nuclear weapons against terrorists in Pakistan.
Irresponsible. Naive. Reckless.
Now, let us examine their votes on another issue--the use of cluster munitions in civilian areas.
What are Cluster Munitions?
Cluster Munitions or Cluster Bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched that eject a number of smaller submunitions ("bomblets"). The most common types are intended to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Cluster bombs are highly controversial outside of the United States:
Cluster bombs are not specifically covered by any international legal instrument, although the general rules of international humanitarian law aimed at protecting civilians apply as they do to the use of all other weapons. An initiative by the Government of Norway launched an international treaty development process commonly known as the Oslo Process in February 2007 to prohibit cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians by 2008. According to the Cluster Munition Coalition seventy-five governments are participating in the process including over half of the world's stockpilers and half of the producers.[1] The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is campaigning for an international treaty banning cluster munitions. In the absence of an internationally agreed definition of cluster munition and while such a definition is being developed the CMC is calling for "a prohibition on cluster munitions, as defined."[2] Through an effects-based description, the CMC has provided some guidance on the types of weapons that it considers to be cluster munitions, i.e. weapons that are prone to indiscriminate use and that pose severe and lasting risks to civilians from unexploded submunitions.[3]
I'm sure that no one here will be surprised to learn that George W. Bush has refused to particpate in the CMC's efforts.
Cluster Munitions are nasty, nasty, nasty things:
While all weapons are potentially dangerous to civilians, cluster bombs pose a particular threat to civilians for two reasons: they have a wide area of effect, and they have consistently left behind a large number of unexploded bomblets. The unexploded bomblets remain dangerous for decades after the end of a conflict.
98% of 13,306 recorded cluster munitions casualties that are registered with Handicap International are civilians. Cluster munitions are opposed by many individuals and hundreds of groups, such as the Red Cross,[5] the Cluster Munition Coalition and the United Nations, because of the high proportion of civilians that have fallen victim to the weapon. Since February 2005, Handicap International called for cluster munitions to be prohibited and collected hundreds of thousands signatures to support its call.[6]
The use of cluster bombs near civilian areas is not merely a humanitarian issue--it is a human rights issue.
The area affected by a single cluster munition, known as its footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields [7] Because of the weapon's broad area of effect, they have often been documented as striking both civilian and military objects in the target area. This characteristic of the weapon is particularly problematic for civilians when cluster munitions are used in or near populated areas and has been documented by research reports from groups such as Human Rights Watch,[8] Landmine Action, Mines Action Canada and Handicap International. In some cases, like the Zagreb rocket attack, civilians were deliberately targeted by such weapons. [9]
Even worse than the effect these bombs have when they work right is when they don't work right:
The other serious problem is unexploded ordnance (UXO) of cluster bomblets left behind after a strike. These bomblets may be duds or in some cases the weapons are designed to detonate at a later stage. In both cases, the surviving bomblets are live and can explode when handled, making them a serious threat to civilians and military personnel entering the area. In effect, the UXOs can function like land mines.
. . .
Given that each cluster bomb contains hundreds of bomblets and are fired in volleys, even a small failure rate can lead each strike to leave behind hundreds or thousands of UXOs scattered randomly across the strike area. For example, after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, UN experts have estimated that as many as one million unexploded bomblets may contaminate the hundreds of cluster munition strike sites in Lebanon.[13]
How could these things get any worse? How about if they were designed so that they look like children's toys?
In addition, some cluster bomblets, such as the BLU-97/B used in the CBU-87, are brightly colored to increase their visibility and warn off civilians. However, the color, coupled with their small and nonthreatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys.
A million land mines/booby traps that kids want to play with. It should go without saying that using these things near civilian areas should be a war crime, let alone prohibited by individual nations' laws.
The number of deaths and the ongoing danger is horrifying.
In Lebanon:
Throughout southern Lebanon, more than 405 cluster bomb sites containing approximately 100,000 unexploded bomblets have been discovered. Each site covers a radius of 220 yards.
Thirteen people, including three young children, have been killed and 48 injured. So far, more than 2,900 unexploded bomblets have been destroyed in Lebanon but it will take 12 to 15 months to complete the effort.
In other places:
· An estimated 1220 Kuwaitis and 400 Iraqi civilians have been killed since 1991.
· In Iraq in 2003, 13,000 cluster bombs with nearly 2 million bomblets were used. Combining the first and second Gulf Wars, the total number of unexploded bomblets in the region is approximately 1.2 million.
· In Afghanistan in 2001, 1228 cluster bombs with 248,056 bomblets were used. Between October 2001 and November 2002, 127 civilians were killed, 70 percent of them under the age of 18.
· In the first Gulf War, 61,000 cluster bombs were used containing 20 million bomblets. Since 1993, unexploded bomblets have killed 1600 innocent men, women, and children, injuring more than 2500 others.
· Between nine and 27 million unexploded cluster bombs remain in Laos from U.S. bombing campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s. Approximately 11,000 people, 30 percent of them children, have been killed or injured since the war ended.
http://leahy.senate.gov/...
Sadly, only Belgium has enacted such legislation, and treaty efforts lag behind.
But, Senators Diane Feinstein and Pat Leahybravely took up the challenge and introduced legislation in the Senate to prevent the U.S. or anyone who buys them from the U.S. from using them near civilian areas.
The bill's purpose and text were quite simple and clear:
Statement of Purpose: To protect civilian lives from unexploded cluster munitions.
At the end of title VIII, add the following:
Sec. 8109. No funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act my be obligated or expended to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer any cluster munition unless the rules of engagement applicable to the cluster munition ensure that the cluster munition will not be used in or near any concentrated population of civilians, whether permanent or temporary, including inhabited parts of cities or villages, camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or camps or groups of nomads.
This is the kind of thing that should make us proud as Democrats.
Reality is much less fortunate.
You see, that legislation was prompted by Israel's actions in Lebanon in 2006:
Sources familiar with the legislation, however, said that the measure was clearly triggered by Israel’s recent use in Lebanon of the American-made artillery shells filled with small bomblets.
The proposed legislation requires the Pentagon to devise clear rules of engagement ensuring that American forces — or foreign armies — do not use cluster bombs against civilians, but sources familiar with the legislation said that it was mainly directed at the recent use of such bombs by Israel in Lebanon.
Congressional sources, as well as several senior officials with national Jewish organizations, said that many officials in Washington — both in the administration and on Capitol Hill — are unhappy about the way in which Israel used cluster bombs in Lebanon. Some believe that Israel may have violated an American-Israeli agreement, the details of which never have been published, regarding the terms of the use of the munitions, sources said. Some government officials are concerned about the impact on America’s image abroad of the continued explosions of small American-made bombs in civilian neighborhoods in an Arab country that the Bush administration considers friendly to America. This concern was echoed in a statement by Feinstein, who said, "Unexploded cluster bombs fuel anger and resentment and make security, stabilization and reconstruction efforts that much harder."
Not even the IDF would defend the Israeli practices when speaking candidly:
In a September 12 article, Ha’aretz quoted the unnamed head of an Israeli rocket unit as saying: "What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs." The rocket unit commander also stated that Multiple Launch Rocket System platforms were used despite the fact that they were known to be highly inaccurate.
http://www.forward.com/...
Saving children's lives and improving our image should be a win-win proposition.
But, it offended Republican war-mongers and scared some Democrats who worried about offending supporters of Israel:
Yet international criticism of the estimated 100,000 Israeli bombs that failed to detonate in Lebanon have led many to associate Washington’s No. 1 ally in the Middle East with the weapons, complicating the task for Democrats who support Feinstein-Leahy while cozying up to Jewish-American voters.
"For Jewish-American activists who are active because of their concerns about Israel, they are, generally speaking, not going to want to see additional restrictions placed on Israel’s use of U.S. weaponry," a source close to the Obama camp said.
. . .
Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) have courted the Jewish community in recent years, but Obama hardly is ceding ground to his primary rivals. The Illinoisan’s campaign recently signed a formal adviser on Jewish-American policy, and Obama will appear Friday at a Chicago policy forum of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the capital’s most influential pro-Israel group.
The Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Hadar Susskind, observed that Jewish-American groups have a heightened awareness of cluster weapons limits after human-rights groups called on Israel to cease deploying the bombs without mentioning other countries that use them.
"They are sensitive to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty reports that, for better or for worse, are often seen as one-sided or skewed by folks within the Jewish community," Susskind said.
The bill went down to a crushing defeat, 70-30.
http://www.senate.gov/...
All 55 Republicans voted against it. Also voting with the Republicans were these Democrats:
Bayh
Biden
Clinton
Dodd
Inouye
Landrieu
Lieberman
Lincoln
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Rockefeller
Salazar
Schumer
Obama voted for the bill.
So, the three Senators who voted for the Iraq war also voted to continue the legality of using cluster bombs made by the United States of America near civilian targets.
For some reason, the words 'reckless' and 'irresponsible' sound a bit hollow coming from these folks.
But, it's not too late for them to join Diane Feinstein, Pat Leahy, Russ Feingold, and Barack Obama--the legislation has been reintroduced.
Let us hope that Senators Biden, Clinton, and Dodd start caring about doing the right thing instead of posturing because they worry about seeming 'serious' or what they think supporters of Israel think about dropping cluster bombs on children.
For some reason, 'irresponsible' and 'reckless' seem to be about much more than political rhetoric and debate answers.
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