Cluster bomb treaty: A decline to sign
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
The actions of the Bush administration on Friday just made it that much harder for Americans to be proud of their country.
That's when 111 countries signed a treaty, setting an eight-year deadline to end the use of cluster bombs. The U.S. not only declined to sign the treaty, but along with other manufacturers of the bombs -- China, India, Israel, Russia and Pakistan -- boycotted the talks.
Cluster bombs are nightmare munitions, with a high rate of failure, which results in scattered bomblets exploding long after any given conflict is over, often resulting in civilian deaths and casualties.