Ban Cluster Bombs? Yes, We Can!

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are getting big praise
around the world for their new Charm Offensive. As far as I'm
concerned, the praise is justified. I heard our Secretary of State
interviewed on the BBC a few weeks ago about our diplomatic
outreach to Iran on Afghanistan. And the BBC was all, what
makes you think Iran is going to help you on Afghanistan? And Hillary
was all, you know, actually Iran helped us tremendously in Afghanistan
after 2001. Our Ambassador in Afghanistan and the Iranian Ambassador
were meeting practically every day. I just about fell off my chair.
You'd have thought Hillary was applying for a job at the National Iranian American
Council
.

But at some point nice words about international cooperation have to
be matched by deeds, the kind of concrete, bite down on, facts on the
ground deeds you can wave around while saying, "see, there really is
change," without fear of plausible contradiction.

A big step would be for the United States to formally join the
international consensus on cluster bombs: these weapons are inherently
anti-civilian and should be totally banned from the face of the earth.
On Monday, March
30
, US groups campaigning for the cluster bomb ban are asking
Americans to call their Senators, urging them to support the Cluster
Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S.
416
). Mark your calendar.

This isn't pie in the sky. As a Senator, President Obama supported
restrictions on cluster bombs - in fact, he was the only Democratic
Senator running for President who supported Senator Feinstein's
amendment restricting exports of cluster bombs in 2006. And the
restrictions on exports that Obama supported as a Senator are now US
law
. Now campaigners are asking: "If U.S. allies should not use
these weapons, then why should U.S. troops?"

There's been a good bit of resistance in the United States - even more
now that the Wall Street boys have tanked the economy with their
publicly-insured gambling - to the notion that the United States,
along with other wealthy countries, should pull its weight in terms of
foreign aid. So here's something we can do that's free: stop causing
destruction that people will expect us to pay for later.

Earlier this month, CNNreported
that cluster bomb clearing operations in Southern Lebanon following
the 2006 Israeli invasion were shutting down due to lack of
international funding. In large measure, those cluster bombs are our
cluster bombs - cluster bombs that are still killing and maiming
Lebanese children today. If we don't want to pay for the cleanup, then
we should redouble our efforts to make sure that there's nothing to
clean up in the future.

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