I hope Obama will sign this. Voting against banning the use of cluster bombs was the deciding factor in why I could not support Hillary. Obama voted for the ban. I expect him to come through as President.
It's an act of pure evil to use cluster bombs, or to advocate their use. Their main victims are children. In America, many on the right have no problem with that. As long as, you know, it's not their children. I have always mused that it's a shame the hell most of them believe in doesn't actually exist. Cause they'd be taking the express elevator, straight down.
Afghanistan Says It Will Sign Cluster Bomb Treaty
By WALTER GIBBS and KIRK SEMPLE
OSLO — In a surprising last-minute change of policy, the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agreed on Wednesday to join about 100 nations in signing a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions, a senior Afghan official said.
“Until this morning, our position was that we were unable,” Afghan’s Ambassador to Norway and the Nordic countries, Jawed Ludin, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “But given the persistent campaign by the various civil society organizations and victims” the president gave his authorization, he said.
Representatives of about 100 nations began signing the ambitious treaty formally renouncing the use of the bombs, typically anti-personnel weapons that eject dozens of explosive bomblets when detonated. But some of the world’s biggest military powers, including the United States, China and Russia, reject the pact and many of the signatories expressed concern that the treaty they were signing fails to bind the countries most prone to military conflict.
As the sponsor of a drive to outlaw the use of the bombs, Norway was the first to sign the treaty, followed by Laos, Lebanon and Ireland.
But the United States has rejected the new treaty and therefore may legally continue to deploy its vast cluster-bomb arsenal. Russia, China, India, Pakistan and most Middle Eastern states have also refused to give up their weapons despite the lethal danger they pose to civilians.
As one of the nations that has most suffered the effects of cluster munitions, especially in terms of civilian casualties, Afghanistan had been a significant holdout from the treaty. “It’s a huge deal because no one here was not expecting it,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Right Watch, who was at the event in Oslo. Mr. Garlasco said that upon hearing the news, a group of Afghan survivors of cluster bombs, most of them in wheelchairs or on crutches, burst into tears. The host of the signing conference, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, said universal compliance was not necessary for the cluster-bomb treaty to work. “What we’ve adopted today is going to create profound change,” he said. “If you use or stockpile cluster weapons after today you will be breaking a new international norm.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/04cluster.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
It's an act of pure evil to use cluster bombs, or to advocate their use. Their main victims are children. In America, many on the right have no problem with that. As long as, you know, it's not their children. I have always mused that it's a shame the hell most of them believe in doesn't actually exist. Cause they'd be taking the express elevator, straight down.
Afghanistan Says It Will Sign Cluster Bomb Treaty
By WALTER GIBBS and KIRK SEMPLE
OSLO — In a surprising last-minute change of policy, the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agreed on Wednesday to join about 100 nations in signing a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions, a senior Afghan official said.
“Until this morning, our position was that we were unable,” Afghan’s Ambassador to Norway and the Nordic countries, Jawed Ludin, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “But given the persistent campaign by the various civil society organizations and victims” the president gave his authorization, he said.
Representatives of about 100 nations began signing the ambitious treaty formally renouncing the use of the bombs, typically anti-personnel weapons that eject dozens of explosive bomblets when detonated. But some of the world’s biggest military powers, including the United States, China and Russia, reject the pact and many of the signatories expressed concern that the treaty they were signing fails to bind the countries most prone to military conflict.
As the sponsor of a drive to outlaw the use of the bombs, Norway was the first to sign the treaty, followed by Laos, Lebanon and Ireland.
But the United States has rejected the new treaty and therefore may legally continue to deploy its vast cluster-bomb arsenal. Russia, China, India, Pakistan and most Middle Eastern states have also refused to give up their weapons despite the lethal danger they pose to civilians.
As one of the nations that has most suffered the effects of cluster munitions, especially in terms of civilian casualties, Afghanistan had been a significant holdout from the treaty. “It’s a huge deal because no one here was not expecting it,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Right Watch, who was at the event in Oslo. Mr. Garlasco said that upon hearing the news, a group of Afghan survivors of cluster bombs, most of them in wheelchairs or on crutches, burst into tears. The host of the signing conference, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, said universal compliance was not necessary for the cluster-bomb treaty to work. “What we’ve adopted today is going to create profound change,” he said. “If you use or stockpile cluster weapons after today you will be breaking a new international norm.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/04cluster.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
