Among the more hellish inventions of our war machine are cluster bombs, an armament consisting of countless explosive canisters which are dropped across vast area of land, incinerating anything in the area. But that, of course, is war. The problem with cluster bombs is that many of their canisters don't explode in the moment, but instead sit, silent, for years, until jostled by an unsuspecting civilian. Happily, 111 countries just signed a treaty outlawing the munition. Unhappily, America isn't one of them. "While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin," said Navy Cmdr. Bob Mehal, a Pentagon spokesman, "cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from U.S. stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk." Also! America has "not used the bombs since the 2003 invasion of Iraq." There's a lot of talk in foreign policy circles about how America can reassert its role as leader of the world. There's less talk, sadly, about whether it deserves that role. Update: Also, as David Rees points out, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly voted against the cluster bomb ban, while Obama has voted for it.
