The Mad Rants of an Unconventional Soccer Mom

This week in Dublin, representatives from more than 100 nations gathered to develop a treaty that would ban the use of cluster bombs:

Cluster munitions are among the weapons which pose the gravest dangers to civilians, according to the CMC.

Dropped from warplanes or fired from artillery guns, they explode in mid-air, randomly scattering bomblets -- ramping up the risk of civilians being killed or maimed by their indiscriminate, wide-area effect.

They pose a lasting threat to civilians as well, as many bomblets fail to explode on impact.

Cluster munitions caused more civilian casualties in Kosovo in 1999 and Iraq in 2003 than any other weapon system.

In the Middle East, Israel's widespread use of cluster bombs during the 2006 war in Lebanon caused more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire, the CMC said.

Under the draft treaty, signatories would never use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer cluster munitions. They would also have six years to destroy their stockpiles.

Guess what countries weren’t represented there and why:

Notably absent from the conference include China, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- all major producers and stockpilers.

The United States of America is the largest manufacturer of cluster bombs. This weaponry maims and kills thousands of innocent human beings globally each year but reaps huge profits for the defense industry. Thus, our absence is no grand mystery. It’s always about profits.

In 2006 a vote came up in the senate. It was senate amendment 4882: Statement of Purpose: To protect civilian lives from unexploded cluster munitions.

Here’s the full text:

No funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act my [sic] be obligated or expended to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer any cluster munitions unless the rules of engagement applicable to the cluster munitions ensure that the cluster munitions will not be used in or near any concentrated population of civilians, whether permanent or temporary, including inhabited parts of cities or villages, camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or camps or groups of nomads.

Not a single republican voted in favor of this amendment and neither did Clinton.

Did that sink in? Clinton voted against banning the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas. Think about that: Should our military be permitted to use cluster bombs in civilian areas, with each exploding bomb covering the range of a football field? Yes or no? Senator Clinton said yes. Senator Obama said no.

I guess Clinton didn’t want to appear to be soft on terror. I can just hear the rational from the supposedly progressive women fiercely pushing for her "Yes, she does vote for horrible things, but she is a woman! Vote for her anyway.”