Although it is a difficult attempt to lead to a decision to stop sending these bombs, it is a rare challenge from within the Democratic Party towards Biden’s policies on Ukraine..
Led by Democratic Representative Sarah Jacobs, the effort to amend the National Defense Authorization Legislation to ban cluster bomb deployments has won the support of more than a dozen House Democrats and two Republicans..
Jacobs said in a previous statement that sending cluster bombs “contradicts American values,” noting that “many” US partners “do not support this move,” and added that “Russia has used cluster bombs appallingly in Ukraine, but we should not compromise on principles.” High ethical standards by criticizing their actions and then deciding to send the cluster munitions ourselves“.
Any attempt to prevent these bombs from being sent is likely to meet significant resistance. Military support for Ukraine enjoys the support of bipartisan members of Congress, and many lawmakers are calling for that support to be expanded to include more advanced weapons. So far, it is not clear whether the Republican-led House Rules Committee will give Jacobs’ amendment a vote in the House..
In evidence of the support of senators from the Democratic Party for this approach, Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Chris Murphy said that they had sent a letter to the White House requesting that the plan to send cluster bombs be postponed. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders also expressed his opposition to sending these bombs, indicating that he “doubted” that the Senate would make any efforts to block it.
A group of 19 progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives also warned in a statement of the “indiscriminate harm caused by cluster bombs, including mass casualties and civilian deaths”.“.
Instead, many lawmakers from both parties supported the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Among them is Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who said that Russia has used cluster bombs against Ukraine and that “cluster munitions are a terrible tool of war, but Russia has bombed Ukraine for more than 500 days without any regard for human life.”
Duckworth noted that the failure rate of US bombs is “much lower” than that of the Russian bombs. As for Republican Senator Richard Kramer, he supports sending these bombs to Ukraine and said that Russia does not abide by any rules in war and that the Ukrainians are fighting an asymmetric war, and for this he hopes that it will arrive soon.
The Pentagon announced the plan to send this type of bomb last Friday as part of an $800 million military aid package to Ukraine. In doing so, the administration bypasses a rule prohibiting the production, use, and transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate greater than 1%..
#Lawmakers #challenging #Bidens #policy #stop #sending #cluster #bombs #Ukraine