cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/5026301
Full article: https://imgur.com/a/JVKx6Rn
Selected excerpt:
The cluster munitions the Biden administration is sending to Ukraine are much older, and pose an even greater threat to civilians. The bomb is called the dual-purpose improved conventional munition, or DPICM, and production of it ended in the 1990s. The longer the munition stays in storage, the higher the “dud rate” — the share of bomblets that remain unexploded after a cluster bomb is fired. Biden’s decision to send the munitions — a choice he described as “difficult” — bypassed a U.S. law prohibiting the transfer of cluster munitions with a dud rate of more than 1 percent.
I was troubled by his decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine as well. However, one important fact swung me in favor of it: the Ukrainians are deploying said munitions on their own soil, meaning it’s their civilians that will be in danger of being harmed by them in the future, not the civilians of a foreign country. Ukraine thus has an interest in being careful and cleaning up the bomblets after the war is over (assuming they win and keep their territory). The main problem I have with these bombs and land mines is that they’re typically deployed by an invading army and thus pose a threat to civilians they don’t give a damn about. When it’s on your own ground, that’s another story entirely. Ukraine is using these munitions out of desperation, and if they want to gamble their people’s lives on it, that’s their choice. I totally understand it.
While I can agree on some points, I would say it is not ‘their choice,’ it’s their government’s choice. I’m sure there are or will be plenty of Ukrainians who are very much not in favour of this after they lose a limb or a child. It’s a shitty situation so I’m not sure I could blame their government. But I feel for the civilians.
I feel for their civilians too, but it’s still a very big difference between the Russians planting bombs on their land and their own government. Their own government was theoretically elected by them, meaning they represent them. If said populace is unhappy with how their government wages this war, they are free to hold them to task. Yes, there are still issues to address there, but it’s not the same thing.