The Impact of Cluster Bombs

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🗓️ 10 July 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Since the war began, military aid from the US to Ukraine has largely received bipartisan report. But a new planned 800 million dollar package has split Democrats and also riled up Human Rights Groups because of one weapon included in the package — cluster bombs.

More than a hundred countries, including allies of the US, have banned use of the weapon, which releases a large number of bomblets over a wide area. Unexploded bomblets pose a danger to civilians. The Biden administration is defending the decision, citing Ukraine's desperate need for ammunition.

To get a sense of the human cost of cluster bomb use during wartime, we take a look at Laos. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped more than 270 million cluster bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War. Host Mary Louise Kelly discusses this with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Lewis Simons, who reported from Asia and the Middle East for decades.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Supporting Congress for military aid to Ukraine has mostly been bipartisan.
0:12.9	Up to no.
0:13.9	I have some real qualms about it.
0:15.7	Cluster bombs should never be used.
0:18.0	That's crossing the line.
0:19.4	Those are Democrats raising real qualms, and what they and human rights groups are
0:24.3	riled up about is cluster bombs and the Biden administration's decision to send them
0:29.2	to Ukraine.
0:30.6	Sarah Gula-Pdalla leads the U.S. campaign to ban landmines and cluster munition coalition.
0:36.0	Cluster munitions are horrific weapons for many, many reasons, and really the folks who
0:42.1	are making the decision to potentially transfer these weapons, no these, and still are not
0:48.0	adhering to the dangers.
0:50.0	So why so much concern?
0:52.4	And largely comes down to how cluster bombs work, or don't work.
0:56.3	And here's Greg Maire explains.
0:58.2	So a cluster bomb can be dropped from a plane, though the Ukrainians would likely be firing
1:02.8	them from the ground in an artillery shell.
1:05.7	And while the cluster bomb is in the air, it breaks open and releases dozens or even
1:10.4	hundreds of little bomblets.
1:12.7	However, some bomblets are duds.
1:14.9	They don't detonate.
1:15.9	They're small.
	...

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