Cluster Bombs to Saudi Arabia

[Cluster bombs] are used for killing large groups of people, destroying thinly-skinned vehicles and dispensing landmines or poison gas. Some of the Soviet-made incendiary cluster bombs used by Assad’s forces during Syria’s civil war are even designed to light buildings on fire and then explode after sitting on the ground for a while — thereby killing anyone who gets close enough to try to extinguish the flames.

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The little ball-shaped bomblets dispersed by cluster munitions don’t always detonate on first impact. Often, they will just sit there on the ground until someone, often a child, picks them up.

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So far, 112 countries have signed an international treaty banning cluster bombs, with 83 ratifying it. Guess who isn’t part of that club? China, Russia, most of the former USSR, Syria… and the United States .

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The world recoiled in horror when it learned that Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s forces have killed children with such weapons.

But that isn’t stopping the U.S. military from selling $640 million worth of American-made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.

  Foreign Policy

What’s the problem? When the US itself banned DDT, we allowed it to be sold to Mexico. You want us to throw that stuff away and take a loss?