Praise the Lord and Pass the Cluster Munitions
Let the Freedom Bomblets Ring!
A popular song of defiance that came soon after the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 was “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.” Today, that song title must be amended: Praise the Lord and pass the cluster munitions.
From its stockpiles, the U.S. is providing cluster munitions to Ukraine, munitions that have been banned by more than 100 countries. It appears that Russia has already used cluster munitions in the war, which Biden administration spokesperson Jen Psaki denounced as a potential war crime. Ukraine, of course, will only use cluster munitions in a godly way, so no worries there. It’s a crime when Russia does it but they are freedom munitions when Ukraine uses them.
Naturally, Putin and the Russians have promised to respond with more of their own cluster munitions, assuming Ukraine uses its American-made bombs and bomblets. Basically, the Biden administration is sending cluster munitions as a stopgap since the U.S./NATO is running short of conventional high explosive (HE) artillery shells. HE shells are more effective against fixed fortifications and trenches than cluster shells (the latter is a higher-tech variant of shrapnel shells). But in the absence of HE shells, cluster munitions will have to do, even though the “dud” bomblets will persist in the environment for years, if not decades, killing and maiming anyone unlucky enough to come across them.
Supporters of sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, including most members of Congress, are essentially saying that just about any weapon of any brutality is OK if it theoretically helps Ukraine. Short of poison gas and nuclear weapons, I’m not sure there are any weapons they wouldn't send to Ukraine in the name of “democracy.”
With respect to progress in this war, I’ve read conflicting reports that say that Russia is winning by grinding up Ukrainian forces and vice-versa. I’ve read where Ukraine will soon reach a “tipping point” and breakthrough Russian defense lines, driving toward Crimea, but such optimism isn’t shared by some U.S. experts. For example, John Kirchhofer of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency recently said the war is "at a bit of a stalemate” and that “magical” weapons like Leopard and Challenger tanks are not “the holy grail that Ukraine is looking for” and that a breakthrough in the near-term is unlikely.
So, “praise the Lord and pass the cluster munitions” is likely to be a very long funereal dirge rather than an exultant victory anthem.
I wouldn't bet my life that, "short of poison gas and nuclear weapons," there are no weapons that the US neocon sociopaths would not use in Ukraine in the name of "democracy." The proxy war, as John Mearsheimer has made clear, is now an existential battle for both Russia and the US/NATO. Neither can afford to lose. And because Ukraine seems to be on the losing end at the moment, the danger that NATO will somehow become directly involved (Polish troops perhaps) grows by the day. And should that happen, all bets are off. Let's face it, this war has been escalating non-stop since its inception. This war could have been avoided entirely had the Minsk II agreements been implemented. But as we know now, the US/NATO had absolutely no intention of ever abiding by it. It was a total ruse, proving once again that you can never trust the duplicitous neocon cabal. Later, after the war started, the US and the UK scuppered a chance to end the war back in March 2022, when they ordered Zelensky to abandon negotiations and instead send his citizens to be slaughtered in the name of "spreading freedom and democracy." Isn't that always the story? Didn't we spread freedom and democracy when we dropped napalm in Vietnam? Didn't we spread freedom and democracy when we bombed Cambodia and Laos relentlessly? Didn't we spread freedom and democracy when we invaded Panama in 1989 and killed hundreds of civilians? Didn't we spread freedom and democracy when we imposed sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s that led to the death of 500,000 children? Didn't we spread freedom and democracy when we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, when we bombed Serbia and Libya? Aren't we spreading freedom and democracy as we occupy about 1/3 of Syria illegally and keep prisoners locked away in Guantanamo who have never been convicted? So, you can sure, when all those little bomblets are released from the US cluster bombs so generously given to Ukraine, they will not be killing and maiming, they will be spreading freedom and democracy.
I read that the US is finally getting rid of its chemical weapons. I have to wonder why and my guess is that because they are so tricky to use and can quite easily blow back in the face of the one who uses them that it was determined they are essentially useless. Of course getting killed or injured by chemicals is no worse than getting killed or injured by any other weaponry, but we can self-righteously say we are getting rid of these terrible weapons even as we stockpile so many others.
The elephant in the room is nuclear weapons, capable of ending the lives of hundreds of millions of people and more over time. But we keep them and refuse to say we won't use them first. The logic of war-fighting.