“These weapons must be removed from our stockpiles, they must not be dumped in Ukraine,” he added.
Cluster bombs, officially called dual-purpose enhanced conventional munitions, are designed to eliminate multiple military targets by dispersing a large number of small “bulbs” over a wide area. They are banned by most NATO countries because unexploded munitions can end up killing civilians, even long after the conflict has ended.
Democratic lawmakers noted that Congress has banned the transfer of any cluster munition with a “failure rate” of more than 1 percent, although Biden may waive the rule.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Thursday that officials will “carefully” select only the rounds with the lowest failure rates, for which there is recent evidence, to send to Ukraine. The United States has a large number of cluster bombs in stock, which officials argue will help Ukraine break through Russian dug-in lines as Kiev is rapidly running out of conventional ammunition.
Still, lawmakers joined gun control advocates this week in saying the administration was making an ethically unacceptable compromise that would kill civilians, alienate allies and damage the moral case for supporting Ukraine.
Progressive Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House panel that funds the State Department, tweeted that she was “alarmed” by the move, while the ranking member of the House Rules Committee. Jim McGovern said that while he supports helping Ukraine, sending cluster bombs represents a break with NATO allies such as Britain, France, Germany and Spain.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday defended the administration’s decision, saying: “Russia has been using cluster munitions since the beginning of this war to attack Ukraine.”
“Ukraine is committed to post-conflict demining efforts to mitigate any potential harm to civilians. And that will be necessary regardless of whether the United States provides those munitions or not,” he said.
Still, even some more hawkish Democrats ripped the administration. Air Force Veteran and member of the House Armed Services Chrissy Houlahanin a statement on Friday, he challenged the assessment that cluster bombs would be the most effective means of supporting Kiev.
“I challenge the idea that we should be using the same tactics that Russia is using, blurring the lines of the moral high ground,” said Houlahan, who co-chairs the Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)/Bipartisan Demining Caucus. “And I challenge all of us to remember that this war will end and that the broken pieces of Ukraine will have to be rebuilt. History remembers not only who wins a war but also how a war is won.”
Humanitarian and civil rights groups also criticized the decision. Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official and military adviser to PAX Protection of Civilians, a Dutch NGO, noted that actual failure rates in the field are much higher than the engravings during tests “conducted under perfect and unrealistic conditions”.
Comments from U.S. officials defending the decision do not allay the fears of many in the community, said Garlasco, who expressed skepticism about the latest Pentagon test data showing lower failure rates.
Gun control advocates who were on a call with administration officials Friday said that despite claims that the cluster munitions being sent would have lower failure rates, there were no details on the types and sources of cluster munitions that the United States plans to send.
A Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement, said the Pentagon had provided the test results, which are classified, to members of Congress upon request. However, the official acknowledged that variables in the field can significantly affect the failure rate.
“Shoot this in the desert, on dry, flat terrain, you can get a totally different result than if you shoot this in a mountain jungle,” the official said.
Still, there are also powerful members of Congress who support sending cluster munitions. President of the Chamber of Foreign Affairs Mike McCaul (R-Texas), House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and his Republican counterparts in the Senate have been calling for the measure for months. The Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee last month advanced its version of the Pentagon’s annual bill with language that also supported it.
In a statement Friday, Republicans praised the administration’s move as easing pressure on the unit’s missile stockpile, but criticized what they called its delay in sending a series of weapons for a “misplaced fear of escalation” they say puts the success of Kiev’s counteroffensive at risk.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, has said Washington should give Kiev what it says it needs to win the fight, including cluster munitions, longer-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets. “From the very beginning, my view has been: give the Ukrainians what they want and need. Frankly, I wish the United States and the administration had moved more quickly to provide more weaponry,” he told CNN earlier this week.
Progressives, some of whom called in a letter last year for the administration to ban the U.S. military’s use of cluster munitions, have been pressing the administration for months to refrain from this measure
A House Democratic aide said he pointed to that letter several times with State Department officials in recent months, to rouse the administration when it appeared it was planning cluster bombs for Ukraine.
“There are a number of progressives who are really hacked. We thought the communication was clear,” said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss tensions with the executive branch. “They can’t say we weren’t giving clear signals that this was a momentous step. A 6-year-old doesn’t step on an F-16 and lose his leg.”
Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber Colin Allred (D-Texas) defended Biden’s decision on MSNBC Friday morning, saying there is “no way” Ukraine and its allies will lose morale in the face of Russian troops it accuses of war crimes and targeting targets civilians
“I think what we’re trying to do is consistent with our values, to help the valiant Ukrainian resistance drive the Russians out of their territory, and I’m sure President Biden thought deeply about that, and his team, and they. I went decide that this would help them do that, and I’m sure they’ll also try to have a plan to deal with any fallout,” Allred said.
