MSNBC: "US opts out of cluster bomb treaty"

Did ya'll get that title? I almost shot oatmeal out of my nose when I read that (I was eating breakfast, oatmeal is not some disturbing euphemism). Cluster bombs are a pretty nasty piece of military hardware, capable of wreaking havoc over a large area due to the deadly "bomblets" which shower over the target after the initial detonation. Their military value is obvious, but the downside is the usual tragedy of civilian woe.

Their devastating impact on the battlefield often comes at a terrible cost to civilians afterward, including farmers who strike unexploded “bomblets” in their fields or children who mistake the objects for playthings.

Playthings? I mean, American parents will sue someone to smithereens if their child scrapes their knee on the playground, but evidently we have no problem letting all those brown "fer-ner's" kids play baseball with unexploded military ordinance. Our nation, along with Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan, decided not to sign the ban, despite over 100 countries adopting the measure. Evidently, our nation would rather let a couple thousand more kids die than give up one of our many toys. Our rationale:

While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk.

Because refraining from using one type of bomb is gonna ensure a "terra-ist" victory, or commie victory, or illegal immigrant victory, or which every enemy Eurasia is at war with at the moment. Why don't we try equipping our soldiers with actual body armor and IED resistant vehicles, and then worry about whether or not a lack of cluster bombs will endanger our fighting men and women?

Ah, then we find that the Bush Administration, SURPRISE!, might have another reason to oppose this life-saving ban. They've been using cluster bombs to fight...well...AQI, the Insurgents, whoever...in Iraq for years, and Gawd knows, we can't do anything which might hamper Dubya's exercise in prideful ignorance in the Middle East.

For the record, Obama has come out in support of a ban on cluster bombs, while Hilary has not. Screw all those little kids, right Hil? If they were Americans, they'd be young or a minority, so they would probably be voting for Obama anyway. Way to be a leader....

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