Post AXRVa44FMjOS2yF5KC by Nerper@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by Nerper@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #AXRUJakWVBv0Wyb8eO by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T06:18:48Z
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@kevinrothrock I think it's important that the discussion about cluster munitions doesn't get too black and white. It also costs Ukrainian lives if they don't have enough ammunition, and this is a way to mitigate that shortage.
(DIR) Post #AXRVa44FMjOS2yF5KC by Nerper@mstdn.social
2023-07-07T06:32:52Z
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@anderspuckI can say the quiet part out loud that a respectful and credible analyst such as yourself can't just throw out there without risk of backlash. Allowing Russia to remain entrenched while indiscriminately littering Ukraine with landmines and a propensity to use cluster munitions anyway will result in a hell of a lot more death and suffering. Giving Ukraine cluster munitions is the lesser of two evils.
(DIR) Post #AXRVi33f0E2pEUm6dM by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T06:34:26Z
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@kevinrothrock I think there is a moral problem in assuming we have to make that choice on behalf of the Ukrainians. It's their country, and it's their soldiers dying.
(DIR) Post #AXRW6CXtNaibblQt5k by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T06:38:47Z
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@kevinrothrock Maybe so. When I look at the map of signatories to that convention, it is very much a picture of countries that in 2008 never expected to have to fight a war on their own territory again. Very few of Russia's neighbors have signed it.I will also say that modern cluster munitions can be built with various safety mechanisms to reduce the problems.
(DIR) Post #AXRWF5eKOAGEpHgJ7Y by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T06:40:22Z
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@Nerper I agree. It is important that we acknowledge that not giving cluster munitions also causes death and suffering.
(DIR) Post #AXRWbfSLwMXOFYqVpA by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T06:44:28Z
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@kevinrothrock I guess they saw another use case for it in Washington. The U.S. has been using cluster munitions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
(DIR) Post #AXSPHFGz4hGyjNnqnA by Carwil@mastodon.online
2023-07-07T16:48:32Z
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@anderspuck @kevinrothrockThese munitions trade soldiers' lives today for civilian deaths over decades. Battlefield decision-making almost always chooses the former. Many laws of war, from the Geneva Conventions to the Land Mine and Cluster Munitions bans, exist to take these choices off the table.
(DIR) Post #AXSRuorStL3iJBrg4u by anderspuck@krigskunst.social
2023-07-07T17:26:36Z
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@Carwil @kevinrothrock Yes, that is the theory. But at the moment the Russians are covering Ukraine with old cluster munitions with a dud rate of maybe forty percent. It might be better to equip Ukraine to win the war.