Yes, He Can!

U.S. President Barack Obama has limited the export of cluster munitions so drastically that a total ban would now be logical.

The supplemental budget bill signed Tuesday by Barack Obama contains a provision that will ban the export of cluster bombs in the future. Critics of cluster bombs cheer Obama’s decision as a rejection of Pentagon desires and an about face in U.S. policy.

Cluster bombs are considered among the most dangerous weapons: they contain many small bomblets that are widely dispersed upon impact. Many of the smaller bombs do not detonate immediately but remain undiscovered on the ground, often for years, where they can be set off by the slightest disturbance. The new regulations require the bombs to have a dud factor of less than one percent (i.e., more than 99 percent of the bomblets must detonate upon dispersal), a limit that virtually no American-produced bombs can achieve. Observers consider the new regulations to be so strict that it’s unlikely any further cluster bombs will ever be exported from the U.S.

In 2006, about one million cluster bombs were used against Hezbollah in South Lebanon. The United States used cluster bombs in operations in Kosovo in 1999 as well as in Iraq in 2003 where duds endanger lives even today. Experts estimate that the United States has exported hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs to 28 different nations. The United States, along with Russia, China and other countries where cluster bombs are produced, refuses to sign any international convention condemning their use.

Obama’s decision was welcomed by Congress. Democratic Senators Feinstein and Leahy further announced that in addition to the export ban, they intend to introduce legislation permanently banning the use of cluster bombs by U.S. forces altogether.

According to the new regulations, the U.S. military may continue using current cluster munitions until 2018, after which the technically upgraded versions with a dud rate of less than one percent must be used. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explicitly defended the use of cluster munitions as late as July 2008 in a three-page document where he described them as “legitimate weapons with clear military use.”

For the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), this development is a harbinger of the Obama administration’s desire for a comprehensive change of policy in this area. HRW’s Steve Goose commented, “If it is unacceptable for foreign militaries to use these weapons, why would it be acceptable for the U.S. military to use them?”