Saudis Drop US-Made Cluster Bombs in Criminal War on Yemen

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/30092-focus-saudis-drop-us-made-cluster-bombs-in-criminal-war-on-yemen

Human Rights Watch presented evidence of the Saudi cluster-bombing campaign in a widely under-reported analysis presented May 3. The New York Times had a story datelined Cairo on page A8 of its May 3 print edition covering the Human Rights Watch report, but the paper has had no follow-up. The online version of the Times story noted, near the end, that both the Saudis and Americans have used cluster bombs in Yemen as long ago as 2009, without provoking significant protest.

Amnesty International issued a report May 8 documenting Saudi bombing of densely-populated areas of Yemen where the Saudis mostly killed civilians. An earlier Amnesty report documented the Saudi killing of hundreds of Yemeni civilians in its US-supported bombing campaign. Also on May 8, the Saudis announced that it would begin a unilateral ceasefire beginning at 11 p.m. on May 12, conveniently timed to precede meetings of President Obama and Arab dictatorship representatives, including the five countries leading the attacks on Yemen, starting May 13.

By condemning Saudi and others’ use of US cluster bombs, Costa Rica is an exception among the “civilized” nations of the world. Costa Rica is one of 116 current signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force on August 1, 2010. Most countries in Europe and North America have signed the convention, but the United States and Russia have not. Neither have China or Israel. Nor has the coalition of Arab dictatorships attacking Yemen: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Sudan, and Morocco. (Among Middle East countries, the only ones that have forsworn cluster bombs are Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.)

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This thoughtless think tank expression of the establishmentariat’s view of the need for heavily-muscled US exceptionalism had been expressed considerably more forthrightly in May 2008 by then-Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Stephen Mull:

Cluster munitions are available for use by every combat aircraft in the U.S. inventory, they are integral to every Army or Marine maneuver element and in some cases constitute up to 50 percent of tactical indirect fire support. U.S. forces simply cannot fight by design or by doctrine without holding out at least the possibility of using cluster munitions.

What that really means is that cluster munitions cost a lot less than standard ordnance, so the military can kill lots more people with many fewer airplanes, rockets, and artillery. In one test, the alternative to cluster munitions was found to be nine times as expensive and to take 40 times as long to create equivalent destruction.

[Jesus Malverde]

1. Targeting being provided by the USA.

No doubt we're involved whole hog.