Great Britain close to singing anti-cluster bomb treaty: US, China, Russia and others refuse to give up their obscene, deadly toys
Well, well, some really good news for once:
The government is preparing to scrap Britain’s entire arsenal of cluster bombs in the face of a growing clamour against weapons that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians. Officials are paving the way for the unexpected and radical step at talks in Dublin on an international treaty aimed at a worldwide ban on the bombs.
Well-placed sources made clear yesterday that despite opposition from the military, the government is prepared to get rid of the cluster munitions in Britain’s armoury: the lsraeli-designed M85 artillery weapon used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in attacks on Lebanon two years ago; and the M73, part of a weapons system for Apache helicopters.
Cluster weapons are highly controversial because they scatter small “bomblets” over a wide area. Many of them do not explode on impact and are activated later by civilians. They caused more than 200 civilian casualties in the year after the Lebanon ceasefire, and more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system.
Of course, this is a story about humans, and the military, so no silver lining ever comes without some serious motherfucker of a storm cloud:
Human rights groups campaigning for a ban on all cluster bombs said yesterday the planned treaty was being threatened by the refusal of the US to remove stocks from its airforce bases on UK territory. Article 1 of the planned treaty, due to be signed in Oslo in early December, prohibits assistance with the use, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The US, Israel, Russia, China, India and Pakistan are not taking part in the talks.
So, as predicted, the US don’t want to play – even up to the point of ignoring the wishes of its so-called closest ally. I wonder what would happen if the situation was reversed and England was stocking some stuff that was illegal in the US on British bases over there? Okay, not much to ‘wonder’ really: that would simply never ever happen. In other words, you can only be the ‘bestest friend’ of the US if you do the famous ‘How high?’ routine whenever this big bully of a drill sergeant says ‘Jump!’.
Enough of the US bashing though. Let’s not forget that a few other countries who love to fight very dirty indeed, also didn’t bother to show up at these talks. Russia, which likes to fight its disgusting little wars in privacy, uncensored by the rest of the world; China, with its history of bloody oppression of its own people, and the people of Tibet; Israel, which used these weapons with such enthusiasm when it, once again, invaded Lebanon; India & Pakistan, both countries regularly at war with each other and always ready for some very dirty infighting as well.
As lovely a six pack of bloodthirsty barbarians as you will ever hope not to meet on any battlefield.
Still, it is good news that Great Britain will finally join the civilised world in at least this regard. You can’t change the world overnight (or human nature at all) so we truly have to find every bit of solace wherever we find it – and any reduction in the use of this vile weapon is very good news indeed.
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