For those familiar with my previous pieces, it’s no secret I am an advocate for military support of Ukraine. Perhaps the biggest recent development regarding American aid to Ukraine is the decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions. This decision was made since typical artillery shells are in short supply considering Ukraine has used much of its stockpile and Western defense contractors have been slow to ramp up production. The Biden Administration has proposed using cluster munitions as a temporary stopgap until the United States can produce enough regular shells.
Cluster munitions are weapons that break up midair and distribute many smaller-yet-powerful submunitions or “bomblets” over an area (as opposed to one larger munition at a specific target). A single cluster bomb or cluster shell can eliminate large numbers of exposed troops and disable many enemy vehicles with its numerous bomblets. The Convention on Cluster Munitions prevents the use, transfer and stockpiling of such weapons; however, the United States, Ukraine and Russia are not signatories to the treaty.
Thus at first glance, donating cluster weapons makes sense – Ukraine and Russia are already using them, and the Ukrainian government has the right to decide what weapons it uses on its own land. Additionally, the United States is disbanding its own cluster munition arsenal despite not being a signatory to CCM, so letting our weapons be used for a good cause makes more sense than tossing them in the trash.
The reason the Biden administration’s decision is controversial (and the reason CCM exists in the first place) is the danger cluster weapons pose to civilians. Old American cluster munitions in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam that were dropped during the Vietnam War still kill and maim civilians – disproportionately kids who pick the weapons up out of curiosity. By landing in trees, mud or other atypical pieces of terrain, or simply by malfunctioning, up to 40 percent of the bomblets may fail to detonate on impact.
The Pentagon has admitted some of the bomblets in their munitions have a failure rate of 14 percent – a number determined after testing the weapons on dry, hard, desert terrain, which is a far more ideal environment than that of eastern Ukraine.
Keeping that in mind, the Biden administration has promised to help clear eastern Ukraine of submunitions after the war, and Ukraine has offered to keep close track of where it uses cluster munitions to aid such efforts. There is good reason to be skeptical of these promises – Zelenskyy has a whole war to worry about while Biden must deal with bureaucracy, budgetary constraints and term limits.
However, there is another, indirect reason to be against the distribution of cluster munitions: the precedent this sets for arms control. Although there are plenty of arms control treaties the United States has not signed onto, the United States has kept some semblance of moral authority when it comes to preventing the proliferation and use of some of mankind’s most abominable creations.
The message the Biden administration is sending by providing Ukraine with cluster munitions, however, is that arms control only matters until it becomes inconvenient. Although our claim to morality may matter little to our enemies (they would use horrific weapons regardless of whether America is being hypocritical or not), the portion of the world that remains unaffiliated with either side of the conflict will begin to see less contrast between Russia and the United States. They will view both countries as actors of opportunity – military powers that help only certain countries in selfish, destructive ways and ignore the rules that may get in the way, even if those rules are designed to protect civilians.
If we hope to win the long-term cold war between democracy and autocracy, maintaining the moral high ground is critical to winning over neutral countries.
(Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.)
