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A leading House Republican said Sunday he agreed with the Biden administration’s controversial decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package, while a prominent progressive Democrat say the US risks “losing our moral leadership” over the move.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., made their comments in separate interviews with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
McCaul said the weapons “would be a game changer” in the Ukraine war, noting that “Russia is dropping cluster bombs with impunity” on Ukrainian territory.
“All the Ukrainians and (President Volodymyr) Zelensky are asking for is to give them the same weapons that the Russians have to use in their own country against the Russians in their own country,” he said. “They don’t want them to be used in Russia.”
‘This is crossing a line’: Democrat responds to Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine
Munitions, also known as cluster bombs, spread shrapnel that is designed to kill troops or take out armored vehicles such as tanks, but also scatter “bulbs” over large areas that may not explode on impact and can have an effect on long term. risk to anyone who encounters them, like landmines.
More than 100 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have outlawed the munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US and Ukraine are not signatories to the ban, a point McCaul stressed on Sunday .
CNN previously reported that President Joe Biden pondered the decision before approving the arms transfer on Friday.
Biden said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that it was a “difficult decision” but he was ultimately convinced to send the controversial weapons because Kiev needs ammunition in its counteroffensive against Russia.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the ABC on Sunday that the administration was “aware of concerns about civilian casualties” but reiterated that Ukrainian forces plan to use cluster munitions to “defend their own territory, hitting Russian positions”.
Lee, however, told CNN that cluster bombs “should never be used. That’s crossing a line.”
“They don’t always explode immediately. Kids can step on them,” he said. “The president has been doing a good job managing this war, this war of aggression by Putin against Ukraine. But I think that shouldn’t happen.”
Asked by Tapper whether the United States might be engaging in war crimes by providing the weaponry, Lee said, “What I think is that … we risk losing our moral leadership because, when you look at the fact that more than 120 countries have signed the convention. on cluster munitions saying that they should never be used, that they should never be used.”
The comments underscore the sensitivities surrounding cluster munitions, which US forces began phasing out in 2016 because of the danger they pose to civilians.
Another Democrat, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, said Sunday that he appreciated that the Biden administration “wrestled with the risk and reached agreements with the Ukrainian military” on the use of the munitions, but that he has “genuine doubts” about the decision.
“There is an international ban. And the US says, “But here’s a good reason to do something different.” It could also give other nations the green light to do something different,” Kaine said.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, welcomed the shipment of cluster munitions to Ukraine, but said the United States was taking “too long” to supply the country with weapons.
“The best thing we can do now is step up,” Barrasso told Fox News. “It seems to me that there is a lot of delay in the activity of this administration and finally getting to Ukraine what they need.”
Lee and McCaul also differed on Sunday over the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has resurfaced as an issue after the recent release of a State Department report that found that decisions by Trump and Biden administrations to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan were harmful. consequences.
“I don’t think the (Biden) administration deserves any blame for that,” Lee said.
“We have to remember that Donald Trump made this deal with the Taliban. Second, the Trump administration literally gutted our State Department and our diplomatic corps. I think the State Department and those who being involved in the end of the war in Afghanistan, which should have happened earlier, I think, they did the best they could,” Lee said.
McCaul called the report “damaging” and said the whole ordeal was a “huge foreign policy mistake.”
The report was released publicly on June 30, more than a year after the 90-day withdrawal review was completed, and includes findings on the tumultuous final weeks of the US presence in Afghanistan, as well as as several recommendations to improve them.
The Biden administration’s frantic retreat after 20 years of American involvement has come under immense scrutiny from predominantly Republican lawmakers. However, accusations about who was responsible for the chaotic final weeks have largely fallen along party lines, with Republicans pointing the finger at the Biden administration and Democrats, including the White House, blaming the Trump administration from the agreement that established the withdrawal of the United States. movement
Asked June 30 about the report and whether he admitted there were “mistakes during the withdrawal,” Biden noted that he had promised al Qaeda “wouldn’t be there.”
“I said we would get help from the Taliban,” the president said. “He was right.”
McCaul said Sunday that the president’s response was “out of touch with reality.”
“It’s kind of strange that a president of the United States is … so disillusioned with what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan, the idea that al Qaeda is gone,” the Texas Republican said. “He just wants to sweep Afghanistan under the rug.”
Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have rolled back decades of human rights progress.
According to recent report According to United Nations experts, the Taliban have committed “egregious systematic violations of women’s rights”, restricting their access to education and employment and their ability to move freely in society.
This story has been updated with additional information.
