![]() ![]() used “nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 to 2 million submunitions in the three weeks of major combat.” is in the minority of countries who have refused to sign, “because officials believed that cluster munitions could be useful on the battlefield.” Indeed, in the Iraq War, the U.S. Many of our allies are part of the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, which totally prohibits their use. I have not even gotten to the international prohibition on cluster bombs. When presidents do that, it of course encourages future presidents to treat the law as meaningless, eroding important norms about constraints on presidential power. Instead, he chose to treat a very important and hard-won limit on weapons exports as irrelevant. law, and find some other way to assist Ukraine that did not violate the law. The correct action here was clear, then: Biden needed to tell the Ukrainian government that cluster bomb exports are prohibited under U.S. In fact, Bush arguably had more of a justification to ignore the law than Biden does here, because the War on Terror arose in response to an actual attack on the U.S., whereas no such national security justification exists here, much as we might want to help Ukraine to repel a criminal invasion. code provisions and the Constitution itself as mere suggestions, to be overridden whenever the president deems it prudent. Bush engaged in during the War on Terror, treating U.S. This is the kind of lawlessness that George W. ![]() If presidents can just say that “national security interest” justifies evading any law they like, without having to actually show how a national security interest is involved, then Congress might as well just not pass laws curtailing presidential power, because they will be entirely meaningless. has a “vital national security interest” in giving Ukraine cluster bombs. There is no plausible argument that the U.S. national security interest.” But this doesn’t work. ![]() This is its full text:ĭoesn’t leave much wiggle room, does it? The Post says that, since what the administration wants to do directly violates the cluster bomb export law, Biden is instead relying on “a rarely used provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows the president to provide aid, regardless of appropriations or arms export restrictions, as long as he determines that it is in the vital U.S. But as the Washington Post notes, “there is no waiver provision in the 1 percent limit Congress has placed.” Indeed, the law is very clear. Instead, his administration has said that Biden is simply waiving the law. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy. “They’re not at the 1 percent level,” said Colin H. In fact, Biden is not even pretending that his action complies with the law. But even if the Biden administration were not fudging the facts, “less than 2.35” does not mean “1,” so these weapons have not been shown to be lawful to send Ukraine. (Cluster bombs spread mini-bomblets over a wide area.They can fail to explode on impact and thus lie in wait for civilians for years after a war, like land mines, which is why there’s a huge international campaign against their use.) The Biden administration claims that the bombs it is sending Ukraine have a dud rate of “less than 2.35 percent.” In fact, this is almost certainly a lie, because the Pentagon itself has previously admitted to a much higher number (14 percent), and the Congressional Research Service says the true number may be up to 30 percent. That law prohibited the export of cluster bombs with a dud rate of over 1 percent. In 2009, Congress spoke, and the president signed a law. The law should have meant that the question of exporting cluster bombs to Ukraine was simply a nonstarter. When Barack Obama signed a ban on exporting cluster munitions into law, it was hailed as a major step toward banning them globally that “would make it almost impossible for the US to sell the controversial weapons.” “ Cluster Bomb Exports Banned,” said Human Rights Watch. ![]()
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