Republicans Push Biden to Send Cluster Bombs to Ukraine

 

by Kyle Anzalone | Apr 26, 2023

Cluster Bomb

Two leading GOP congressmen renewed calls for the White House to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Representative Mike Rogers (R-MS) said the US has 3 million of the controversial munitions that will have to be destroyed if they are not sent to Kiev. 

Rogers, head of the House Armed Services Committee, issued the demand during a committee meeting on Wednesday. “The administration (is) not giving Ukraine the weapons it needs to win. Chief among them is cluster munitions,” he said. 

A cluster bomb is a munition that explodes and drops submunitions. The submunitions, or bomblets, often do not explode and kill civilians decades into the future. After the Vietnam War, as many as 20 million bomblets remained unexploded on the ground in Laos. Thousands of children have been killed and injured when stumbling upon the unexploded submunition. 

Rogers argues that it makes sense for the US to ship the cluster bombs to Ukraine; otherwise, the US will have to pay for their destruction. “The US military has over 3 million cluster munitions that can be fired by 155mm Howitzers in Ukraine’s possession.” He continued, “We are going to spend millions of dollars destroying them if we don’t use them and Russia is using them right now against the Ukrainians.”

Kiev has made several requests for Washington to provide cluster munitions. Both Ukraine and Russia are reported to have deployed the bombs.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) backed Rogers’s proposal. “Those should be provided,” he argued. “I hope every effort will be made to look into providing the cluster bombs. We have 2 million available right now, it’s inconceivable that we don’t do more.” 

Wilson is preparing to introduce a bipartisan resolution that will make supporting Ukrainian victory official US policy. The legislation “affirms that it is the policy of the United States to see Ukraine victorious against the invasion and restored to its internationally recognized 1991 borders.”

There is an international treaty outlawing the use of cluster bombs because the munitions are infamous for the devastation they have repeatedly wreaked upon civilian populations. The Convention on Cluster Munitions took effect in 2010, outlawing munitions that drop submunition. However, the US, Russia and Ukraine are not parties to the treaty. 

The comments by Rogers and Wilson have renewed the push in Congress to provide Kiev with cluster bombs. Last month, Rogers signed a letter with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which called on the White House to send Ukraine cluster bombs, including the Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions. 

About Kyle Anzalone

Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the Libertarian Institute, opinion editor of Antiwar.com and co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Will Porter and Connor Freema

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/republicans-push-biden-to-send-cluster-bombs-to-ukraine/