We Say NO! to U.S. Cluster Bombs in Ukraine!
Biden’s decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine must be opposed. While we maintain Ukraine’s right to defend itself this does not apply to cluster bombs—weapons destructive to the people of Ukraine now and into the future.
The use of cluster bombs has been banned across the globe. According to a July 7, 2023, New York Times article by Victoria Kim, Gaya Gupta and John Ismay titled, “Here’s What Cluster Munitions Do and Why They Are So Controversial:”
“Cluster munitions, first used during World War II, are a class of weapons including rockets, bombs, missiles and artillery projectiles that break apart midair and scatter smaller munitions over a large area. … Cluster munitions’ bomblets are generally designed to explode or ignite upon hitting the ground, but historically their failure rate is the highest among all classes of weapons, with lasting and often devastating consequences for civilians. According to humanitarian groups, a fifth or more of bomblets can linger, potentially to detonate when disturbed or handled years later. … Since World War II, cluster munitions have killed an estimated 56,500 to 86,500 civilians. They have also killed and wounded scores of American service members. Civilians, including children in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Balkans and Laos, continue to suffer from incidents involving remnants of cluster munitions. … Because of those risks, more than 100 countries—though not the United States, Russia or Ukraine1—have signed a 2008 treaty known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions, promising not to make, use, transfer or stockpile them. Since the adoption of the convention, 99 percent of global stockpiles have been destroyed, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition.”
The U.S. capitalist owned and operated government doesn’t give a damn about the people of Ukraine, Russia, the U.S., or anywhere. The U.S. weapons manufacturing industry is America’s biggest and most profitable business enterprise—a business fully funded by U.S. taxpayers who are overwhelmingly workers.
There is only one sure way to end the war in Ukraine and that’s for Russia to get their troops out of Ukraine NOW!
Capitalism rules through war—through the threat of death and destruction to maintain their wealth and power over all the people of the world. Yet is we who, through our labor, create all the wealth accumulated into the private coffers of the wealthy few. War is barbaric! Overthrowing capitalism everywhere grows more urgent by the minute.
1 According to Cluster Munition Monitor 2022, the list of 16 countries that refuse to sign the convention and who produce cluster munitions included Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Iran, Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, the United States and Turkey.