"The devastation and destruction of [155mm cluster rounds fired by howitzer] is almost beyond belief ... That is the munition of choice on the battlefield."
So yesterday President Biden pulled the lanyard on supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions from our war reserve stocks of 155mm howitzer rounds, and much political posturing ensued. (Lanyard? That's a little arty jargon I threw in there for the dwindling number of Americans who have served in ground combat forces.)
Cluster munitions were his choice for the Ukrainian battlefield, but by no means do all Democratic politicians or Progressive voters agree with bringing quite that much devastation and destruction. Objections based on international law are the least of it, really, compared to the threats posed by dissident Representatives on, say, the House Defense Appropriations and House Armed Services Committee.
You can read about those disagreements here: Top Dems break with Biden over sending cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Much more to come on this before the dust and shrapnel settles over there.
4 comments:
Hey, they've got a war to win!
Kind of reminds me of when the crossbow showed up, it was banned by the Catholic Church as being to deadly, which of course everyone ran out and got one.
That is a superb analogy! Similarly, if my memory serves me right, when the first firearms were fielded the Pope ruled that the deadlier types of projectiles could not be used against Christians, only pagans.
I would support a rule of engagement that said it's 'weapons free' against pagans. "God will know his own" (from the Beziers massacre in 1209), AKA in t-shirt language: "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out." There is a certain moral clarity in that.
Well the way things are going, somebody's going to have sorting out to do.
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