Pentagon Announces Policy Changes Dealing With Cluster Bombs

The rest of the world may be aiming to stop cluster bombing but the Pentagon simply plans to make "safer" ones. Faced with international pressure, the United States is revising its cluster bomb policies.

The changes were outlined in a three-page memo signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The new policy will go into effect in 2018 and require that all bomblets in a cluster bomb must detonate. Cluster bombs can scatter hundreds of small explosives over a large area. One of the largest problems with this type of explosive is that live munitions are left behind, sometimes taking years to explode. Those explosions tend to go off at the peril of civilians innocently making a wrong step. By next June, the Defense Department also plans to begin reducing the bombs in their inventory that do not meet the new safety requirements. This comes just a little more than a month after 111 nations, including the UK, signed an agreement to ban cluster bombs and to destroy any stockpiles within eight years. The United States was one of the few countries along with Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan that did not sign the pledge. According to Cmdr. Bob Mehal, a spokesman from the Pentagon, eliminating cluster bombs would "would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk." That philosophy is not held by all in the government. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt is one who is opposed to the United States not outlawing the deadly munitions.

"Now the Bush administration's 'new' policy is to wait another 10 years," said Leahy, calling it "another squandered opportunity for U.S. leadership." He said that in wake of the international treaty agreement, the Pentagon's plan to wait another decade before requiring the 99 percent detonation rate cannot be justified.

Congress voted this past year to cease the export of the weapons for one year. It's expected the next vote will continue the ban. During 2001-2002 more than 1,200 cluster bombs were released by the United States over Afghanistan. Those bombs contained 250,000 small explosives. During the first weeks of the Iraqi War, the United States and British forces dropped 1.8 million bomblets. When the treaty is finally signed in December there is a provision that may force the United States to remove their arsenals of cluster bombs from U.S. bases within borders of the countries that sign.