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“WWRD”: All I Want for My Birthday Is a Bipartisan Cluster Bomb 502B [1]

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Date: 2023-08-03  

1. August 8, 2023 is my 58th birthday. I have conflicted feelings about this approaching Mile Marker on the Interstate of Life. On the one hand, I had hoped to rack up at least one more accomplishment for humanity in my first 58 years. On the other hand, as Tevye might say, today is only August 3. There is still time for a Hail Mary pass at the buzzer.

2. When the Russians used cluster bombs in Ukraine, the Biden Administration called it a “war crime.” Now we Poor, Tired and Lazy Presumed Low-Information American Sheeple are being told that because the Russians are using cluster bombs in Ukraine, “Team America: World Police” has to do it too, otherwise the Russkies will have an unfair advantage. Even if you’re not a water-carrier for American Exceptionalism - which, I assure you, I am not now and I have never been - this is a bridge too far. Enough is enough. There have to be some standards around here. We have to draw a line in the sand here, like Sam Houston at the Alamo, like the Abraham Lincoln Brigadistas on the Jarama Front, like the Fenian “wild geese” at the Dublin Post Office, like the yeshiva boys in the Warsaw Ghetto, like the shebab who throw stones at the tanks of the Immaculate Occupation Forces. This Rainbow Flag can’t go down without a fight. These Rainbow Colors don’t run.

3. The Catholic Bishops have restated their opposition to cluster bombs in response to the Biden Administration decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Roughly a quarter of America identifies as “Roman Catholic.” ‘Nuff said.

4. 150 Members of the House voted for a Republican amendment against sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, including 50 Democrats. Roughly half of America identifies as “Republican.” The First Rule of War Powers Club is that War Powers Club is always bipartisan. ‘Nuff said.

5. Human Rights Watch told Democracy Now that the Biden Administration wasn’t being transparent about what weapons they were transferring, what they claim the “dud rates” of these weapons are, what evidence they have for the claimed “dud rates.” These questions are crucial to the Biden Administration’s claims that they are complying with the spirit of longstanding U.S. law, if not the letter. Also they are crucial to how many kids in Ukraine will be killed and maimed by these weapons, far into the future, long after the people in charge finally decide to end the war.

6. The United States Senate has a Unique Tool designed to address this Crisis: Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act. Like the War Powers Resolution and the Arms Export Control Act, Section 502B provides for a Privileged Resolution in the Senate that cannot be filibustered and “only” needs a majority to pass. It cannot be blocked from getting a vote if the sponsors insist. A Section 502B resolution demands a Report from the Administration within 30 days on the relationship between the United States and a country which receives aid from the United States, under threat of cutting off some or all U.S. aid to that country. But the Senators don’t have to specify in advance what aid they might or might not have in mind to cut off. That makes it easier to get to 51 votes.

7. Unlike a War Powers Resolution or a Resolution of Disapproval pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, a 502B resolution is “free verse.” There’s no prescribed structure, other than questions to the Administration. Senators can put anything in it they want. They could put questions in it about the use of U.S. cluster bombs by Saudi Arabia in Yemen between March 2015 and June 2016, when Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken and April Haines and Robert Malley and Samantha Power and Colin Kahl and Chris Le Mon were in power. As they are now. Yemeni civil society organizations are demanding accountability for the war crimes committed in Yemen since March 2015, including crimes committed by the United States government when Sullivan and Blinken were in power the last time. This would be an opportunity for what Tracy Chapman once called “a little taste of justice.”

8. What would Anna Frank do? What would Rachel Corrie do?

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