Weekend read: Biden has approved supplying Ukraine with internationally banned, anti-personnel cluster bombs. Here's a piece on those weapons I wrote from Laos in 2006.
What about these "replacement" cluster bombs? Weapons are designed to kill, but they don't have to be designed to kill innocents for decades into the future.
The expression, "sprayed by these exploding bomblets." sounds much like something a child would desire on a hot muggy day...apparently the pictures AND a thousand words are not worth enough.
Russia has been using cluster bombs against civilian and military targets since the first days of the war. And several times a day. There is already a lot of unexploded ordnance where they have been used. Yours truly has had to slide into a dugout to avoid being sprayed by these exploding bomblets. Some of Russia’s successes in the southeastern part of Ukraine were due to their use of cluster bombs - when the Ukrainians had nothing to respond with. If not cluster bombs - how would you suggest Ukraine respond? Sounds like you want the Ukrainians to fight with bows and arrows.
Using it in the past is no justification for using it in the future. And when it was used in the past it wasn’t because the only other option was bows and arrows. It was because a war criminal was running the war.
The people without their legs may have other ideas we could explore. What if, for instance, rather than shipping bombs and tanks and other weapons, we asked for volunteers—maybe 10 million—to go to Ukraine and say "NO MORE!" as we helped rebuild the country. Thank you, Terry, for this grim reminder that bombs are never the answer.
Russia continues to use cluster munitions today - every day. What are you doing to stop them? If the Russians are not stopped, they will continue using them westward. Poland and the Baltics are being continuously threatened on Russian state TV. The US is not the only imperialist power on the planet.
Endless cycles of war, as if war offered such a productive idea that humans can't help but wage it. Making war to save lives. Insane. Why haven't we matured enough as a species to create a better solution? In forty thousand years of evolutionarily modern thinking, still nothing but war? Wars to end wars? No better ideas yet? So many forces collude to keep us stuck. Hopeless.
Clusterfuck, indeed....
Horrible!
How sad this all is, wish I could say something clever, but alas the men in power do love their wars. It seems to never end.
What about these "replacement" cluster bombs? Weapons are designed to kill, but they don't have to be designed to kill innocents for decades into the future.
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-tests-fragmenting-replacement-for-cluster-bombs-2020-9
The expression, "sprayed by these exploding bomblets." sounds much like something a child would desire on a hot muggy day...apparently the pictures AND a thousand words are not worth enough.
Oh, horrible. Horrible.
And now we are sending cluster bombs to Ukraine! What a cluster f**k!
They will keep on killing and maiming for years. Now and then unexploded ordnance from world wars one and two is found.
The alternative is a much bigger Russia and no Ukraine and no Ukrainian culture. Over my dead body!
Russia has been using cluster bombs against civilian and military targets since the first days of the war. And several times a day. There is already a lot of unexploded ordnance where they have been used. Yours truly has had to slide into a dugout to avoid being sprayed by these exploding bomblets. Some of Russia’s successes in the southeastern part of Ukraine were due to their use of cluster bombs - when the Ukrainians had nothing to respond with. If not cluster bombs - how would you suggest Ukraine respond? Sounds like you want the Ukrainians to fight with bows and arrows.
Using it in the past is no justification for using it in the future. And when it was used in the past it wasn’t because the only other option was bows and arrows. It was because a war criminal was running the war.
Russia uses cluster munitions EVERY DAY. Unexploded ordnance is a fact of life in Ukraine and will be for some time.
The people without their legs may have other ideas we could explore. What if, for instance, rather than shipping bombs and tanks and other weapons, we asked for volunteers—maybe 10 million—to go to Ukraine and say "NO MORE!" as we helped rebuild the country. Thank you, Terry, for this grim reminder that bombs are never the answer.
Russia continues to use cluster munitions today - every day. What are you doing to stop them? If the Russians are not stopped, they will continue using them westward. Poland and the Baltics are being continuously threatened on Russian state TV. The US is not the only imperialist power on the planet.
Oh wait, are those the only two choices?
Endless cycles of war, as if war offered such a productive idea that humans can't help but wage it. Making war to save lives. Insane. Why haven't we matured enough as a species to create a better solution? In forty thousand years of evolutionarily modern thinking, still nothing but war? Wars to end wars? No better ideas yet? So many forces collude to keep us stuck. Hopeless.