Why hey, it looks like there's a treaty being passed around to ban the use of cluster bombs. I'm glad to see that we're taking steps to get mass weapons of destruction off the table. Where's the dotted line to sign?
Oh wait.. what? We're not signing it? Is there some funny wording in the fine print? Oh. We just like to blow shit up and don't want to be bossed by anyone.. got it.92 nations sign cluster-bomb ban; US, Russia don't
OSLO, Norway – An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion helped persuade his country to change its stance and join nearly 100 nations in signing a treaty Wednesday banning the disputed weapons.
Afghanistan was initially reluctant to join the pact — which the United States and Russia have refused to support — but agreed to after lobbying by victims maimed by cluster munitions, including 17-year-old Soraj Ghulan Habib. The teen, who uses a wheelchair, met with his country's ambassador to Norway, Jawed Ludin, at a two-day signing conference in Oslo.
"I explained to the ambassador my situation, and that the people of Afghanistan wanted a ban," Habib, who said he was crippled by a cluster bomb seven years ago, told The Associated Press.
Speaking through an interpreter, Habib said the ambassador called Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who agreed to change his stance on the treaty.
"Today is a historic day," Habib declared.
The amount of anti-UN sentiment in the US is simply incredible. I can't come up with any sensible reason for it. Maybe it's because they suggest things for other people in the world to do, and yet are not American themselves. Only America is allowed to boss other countries around, proven fact
The U.S., Russia and other countries refuseg to sign the treaty because they claim that cluster bombs have legitimate military uses, such as repelling advancing troop columns. But that is complete bullshit but technically right because no one uses infantry columns. But hell, if they did, well, then they'd be blown to high hell by cluster bombs.
Don't know what these things look like? How about we take a cue from Air shows and set some tunes with it.
Oh yeah, now we're ready to nuke the world!
I used to think Future Weapons was a cool show but now as I'm watching it i get this queasy feeling in my gut, like watching some gross fetish porn video. I mean, watching a guy get his head sawed off is horrible, but watching a robot cluster bomb should be a thousand times worse.
In reality these weapon bans mean nothing. Who is going to enforce them? The big countries will use the weapons anyway if it is the most efficient thing to do and then who's going to tell them they can't? It's pretty clear that America doesn't give much of a fuck on its public image.
It's actually very simple. Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors.
the sheer amount of unexploded cluster bomblets in Laos and Vietnam should be reason enough for the US to sign this. Then again you don't see troop columns in Laos or Vietnam either so i'd say they're doing an excellent job at stopping them... ugh.
You have to ask why we should ban cluster bombs?
I think the best reason why to simply sign along with this is that cluster bombs are very much ineffective. It's the same reason you cant reliably kill someone with a shotgun from 200 yards.
The problem isn't that they're inaccurate or not lethal enough, its that a good chunk of the bomblets don't explode and they're left lying around - if 100% of the bomblets exploded there wouldn't be way less of a problem. I don't understand how you spend millions of dollars on these things and end up with a system where 10-15% or whatever of the sub munitions fail
The punchline is that if we spent all the money we spend on the military to improve the state of the world we could probably get by with 1/20 of our troops and equipment simply because nobody would hate us. But no, we just have to go and spend trillions of bucks on being imperialist jerks and then when other nations fight back it's justification for spending even more money. Am I trying to imply that we brought 9/11 on our selves? No.. never. That'll be unamerican. But perhaps if we had to deal with unexploded shells in on our land we'd think a little differently.
When all is said and done I have just one simple question. How can the US get out of it's economic slump if we just lost 98 customers in our arms trade business?
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