Hillary's vote on humanitarian ban of clusterbombs in 2006 -- TAKE THIS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

[grasswire]

Hat tip to Divernan.


From common dreams in 2008:

In her autobiography, Living History, Senator Hillary Clinton portrays herself as an advocate for children, a defender of women and human rights. In fact, the Clintons have a long history of sacrificing the rights, even the lives of children, for political expediency. It is time to set the record straight.

On September 6, 2006, a Senate bill--a simple amendment to ban the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas--presented Senator Clinton with a timely opportunity to protect the lives of children throughout the world. The cluster bomb is one of the most hated and heinous weapons in modern war, and its primary victims are children. Senator Obama voted for the amendment to ban cluster bombs. Senator Clinton, however, voted with the Republicans to kill the humanitarian bill, an amendment in accord with the Geneva Conventions, which already prohibit the use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas.

All senators are expected to inform themselves on the issues before they cast a vote. The evidence is overwhelming. It is hard to believe that Senator Clinton was unaware of the humanitarian crisis when she voted to continue the use of cluster bombs in cities and populated areas. A U.N. weapons commission called cluster bombs "weapons of indiscriminate effect." For years the international press reported the horrific consequences of cluster bombs on civilians. On April 10, 2003, for example, Asia Times described the carnage in Baghdad hospitals: "The absolute majority of patients are women and children, victims of shrapnel, and most of all, fragments of cluster bombs." Reporting from a hospital in Hillah, The Mirror, a British newspaper, became graphic: "Shrapnel peppered their bodies. Blackened the skin. Smashed heads. Tore limbs. A doctor reports that 'all the injuries you see were caused by cluster bombs. The majority of the victims were children who died because they were outside.'"

Even after wars subside, after treaties are signed, after belligerents return home, cluster bombs wreak havoc on civilian life. Up to 20 percent of the bomblets fail to detonate on the first round, only to become landmines that later explode on playgrounds and farmlands. Children are drawn to cluster bomb canisters, the deadly duds that look like beer cans or toys before they explode.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/03/13/cluster-bombs-are-not-good-children-hillary

[thereismore]

1. Things like this get lost in so much other stuff, but they should not.

Nobody in the MSM has the guts to mention it.

[grasswire]

2. yes, thanks to Divernan (DU) for pulling this out

Maybe someone in the media will pick it up and use it.

[pa28]

3. That amendment should have been an easy vote for any Democrat.

Awful.

[grasswire]

4. it's shocking.

Sickening that a Democrat would vote thus.

[libdem4life]

5. More inconvenient facts.

[elias49]

6. Shame on her. What did she get for that vote?

Oh yeah...what else would one expect from a center-right egomaniac?

[karynnj]

7. I think all the Democrats who actually served in the military voted against the cluster bombs --

was this a case of Clinton voting to appear more hawkish and stronger?

Akaka, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry, and Reed all voted against cluster bombs.

Just this week, Kerry followed up on the work of others in the Obama administration when he was in Laos and Cambodia speaking in both places of how Obama wants to ramp up the effort to remove the unexploded bombs from the Vietnam war.