The Biden administration’s decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine, as part of a new military aid package, is morally unacceptable and must be immediately reversed.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, “cluster munitions remain one of the world’s most treacherous weapons.” Falling over wide areas, the weapons indiscriminately kill and maim combatants and noncombatants alike, causing widespread human suffering. In addition, 10% to 40% of the munitions fail, leaving unexploded munitions to be detonated by unaware civilians years and even decades later.
As far back as 2008, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urged then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which unequivocally bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of these weapons. Since then, 123 nations have signed onto this convention. Unfortunately, the United States has failed to do so, preferring to keep its “options open” when it comes to brokering in indiscriminate death and destruction.
It is incumbent upon all religious leaders and people of goodwill to immediately condemn our government’s inclusion of these barbaric weapons in any current, as well as future international aid packages, and call for the United States to disassemble and destroy its existing inventory of cluster munitions.
Keith G. Kondrich
Swisshelm Park