U.S. cluster bomb plan fails — what of chemical weapons plan

U.S. plane
dropping cluster bombs
over Baghdad

Call to rid the world of chemical, cluster weapons 
News editing, re-reporting, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

Bomblets exterminate into the future

Cluster bombs are not only “extremely imprecise weapons” but also they are threats in the future and to the future — they threaten and kill the children. Cluster bomb’s “bomblets” last on land far into the future where children play and are “attracted to the “unusual, toy-like shapes and colors of these killer weapons.

Cluster bomb "bomblets" 

These killer materiel “work by dispersing hundreds of smaller sub-munitions referred to as ‘bomblets’ or grenades.”

On the callous policy of the United States and other war makers and weapons manufacturers (along with the United States, Israel, Russia, China, South Korea, India and Pakistan) — these killer weapons would never be banned or stop killing children. The United States, Israel, Russia, China, South Korea, India and Pakistan have refused to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Reported earlier on this site, the United States hatched a plan “to establish new rules regarding the manufacture and use of cluster bombs,” a plan to “‘regulate rather than ban’ cluster munitions.”  Joined by five countries (Russia, China, India, Israel and Belarus), the United States pushed this farce at the recent United Nations meeting on conventional weapons in Geneva. However, this time, their deadly mission failed.

Fifty countries said “no” to the U.S. plan.

People on the side of human rights, on the moral side of history urge a total ban on cluster munitions. Ban cluster bombs because of their high failure rate, their indiscriminate performance, and their potential to kill and disfigure civilians long after conflicts end.

A hundred and eleven (111) UN member states have signed the Oslo Convention prohibiting the production, transfer, or use of cluster munitions, while requiring the destruction of stockpiles within eight years.

Also in lethal news—the U.S. puts forth a plan to keep chemical killers

Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons Convention
document

In advance of the Conference on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons convening at The Hague, the Netherlands, “the United States has let it be known that it plans to keep its arsenal of chemical weapons for many years to come. The country reportedly is seeking to extend by a decade the April 2012 deadline obliging states signatories to the international Chemical Weapons Convention to dismantle their chemical weapons.

Chemical weapons or WMDs supplied by the West were used against Iran in the 1980s by Iraq's later-assassinated head of state, Saddam Hussein. The United States has refused to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention. As one of the main victims of chemical weapons, Iran has called on Washington to abide by international law.

The Hague

The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention begins its sixteenth session at the World Forum Convention Center (WFCC) in The Hague tomorrow and ends Friday December 2, 2011.

Sources and notes

“UN kills US cluster bombs proposal,” November 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/212211.html

“U.S. rejects destroying chemical weapons,” November 23, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/211707.html

“Sixteenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties,” November 28-December 2, 2011, World Forum Convention Center, The Hague, http://www.opcw.org/csp16/

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC or Convention). Its mandate is to achieve the object and purpose of the Convention, to ensure the implementation of its provisions, including those for international verification of compliance with it and to provide a forum for consultation and cooperation among States Parties. http://www.opcw.org/about-opcw/

The OPCW States Parties represent about 98 percent of the global population and landmass, as well as 98 percent of the worldwide chemical industry.

The OPCW provides all States not Party to the CWC support in preparing to join the CWC and to effectively implement the global ban on chemical weapons.

It is the fastest growing international disarmament organization in history.

The United Nations has called on all States to join the CWC and to rid the world of the threat chemical weapons pose to international security.

Press TV captions

An unexploded cluster bomb revealing a large supply of cluster "bomblets" within (file photo)

An American B-1B Lancer dropping cluster bombs over Baghdad (file photo)

OPCW caption document

http://www.opcw.org/index.

The Hague, The Netherlands, Britannica image

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