CLW sends letter to Obama Administration on cluster munitions
Feb 11, 2009
On February 10, Council for a Livable World's executive director, John Isaacs, along with leaders of 66 other national organizations, sent a letter to the Obama Administration requesting a review of U.S. policy on landmines and cluster bombs. The U.S. has so far refused to sign international treaties banning cluster munitions and landmines.
Key segments below, or click here to read the full letter.
In early December, as half of the world’s governments signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, a spokeswoman for your Transition Team said that you would “carefully review the new treaty and work closely [with] our friends and allies to ensure that the United States is doing everything feasible to promote protection of civilians.”
We welcomed this statement. We write now to urge you to launch a thorough review within the next six months of past U.S. policy decisions to stand outside the treaty banning cluster munitions, as well as the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.
…Reconsidering these two treaties - and eliminating the threat that U.S. forces might use weapons that most of the world has condemned - would greatly aid efforts to reassert our nation’s moral leadership.