Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently criticized the Biden administration for including cluster bombs in its latest weapons package to Ukraine.
The Biden administration recently announced it would send Ukraine an $800 million weapons package, including cluster bombs.
According to the Blaze, Cluster bombs are weapons fired from land, air or sea that release multiple submunitions called “bomblets.” Such bombs can contain hundreds of submunitions to ensure that a large area can be destroyed with explosives.
“Cluster bombs are munitions so horrific for civilians that more than a hundred nations have signed an international treaty banning them,” Kennedy wrote on Twitter. “Now the Biden administration is preparing to send them to Ukraine.”
“These munitions scatter bomblets across the landscape. Many fail to explode — until children pick them up later,” he added. “They have caused thousands of injuries and deaths to civilians.”
Cluster bombs are munitions so horrific for civilians that more than a hundred nations have signed an international treaty banning them. Now the Biden administration is preparing to send them to Ukraine.https://t.co/Ck2gSm0SOj
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 7, 2023
Kennedy continued to blast Biden, “In February 2021, President Biden promised us ‘diplomacy is back.’ But now the WH rejects talks to end the war in Ukraine + sends cluster bombs instead. It would be nice to see our president put as much energy into talks as he does into sending weapons.”
Kennedy explained, “Cluster bombs are supposed to be used as a weapon of last resort. But we were told Russia is divided + Ukraine is winning the war. Why not use the opportunity to propose a favorable peace?”
The Democratic presidential candidate also noted that Biden opposed cluster munitions in 1982. He shared a Washington Post article titled “Biden’s complicated history on cluster munitions,” which explained that Biden opposed the weapon at one point in his lifetime.
“The backdrop was similar to the one back in the early 1980s when Sen. Biden and others confronted ethical questions about cluster munitions. Amid reports that Israel had used cluster bombs in its invasion of Lebanon, some Democrats went so far as to push for cutting off aid to Israel,” The Washington Post reported.
In 2022, the Biden administration declared that Russia’s use of cluster munitions could be classified as a war crime.
Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked at the time if Russia was committing a war crime for using cluster munitions.
“It is — it would be. I don’t have any confirmation of that. We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime,” Psaki claimed.
