By ZHEN HUANG
Los Alamos

When we hear somebody say or do something out of “common sense”, we instinctively would ask millions of rational “whys”. But in reality, oftentimes we are obsessed with what we love or hate to hear or see, and are very much driven by a one way channel of thinking to arrive at our preconfigured conclusion.

In the case of “sending cluster munitions to Ukraine”, we have seen two divided responses: 

• A. Support as long as it might help Ukraine to win the war at any cost; and
• B. Oppose since it will create everlasting nightmares for Ukraine people.

I don’t know if anyone ever thought about an alternative C, that is, President Biden doesn’t really want to use cluster munition as a “war weapon”, but as a “warning bullet” to lead a campaign for a “Cluster Munition Free World”? 

As we know, to achieve such a goal, the first thing is to raise public awareness as to Why cluster munition must be eliminated. I don’t know how many ordinary citizens of our earth village know the existence of such a weapon called “cluster munition”, but I didn’t know its existence at all before.  

Some facts I have just learned:

• The United States was the “Champion” of dropping cluster munitions. The number it dropped during the Vietnam War was on the order of hundreds of millions. 

“During the Vietnam War, the US used cluster bombs in air strikes against targets in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Of the 260 million cluster bomblets that rained down on Laos between 1964 and 1973, particularly on Xieng Khouang province, 80 million failed to explode. As of 2009 about 7,000 people have been injured or killed by explosives left from the Vietnam War era in Vietnam’s Quảng Trị province alone.” — Wikipedia 

• The United States has fallen way behind 123 states for over 15 years to bind itself for international law of cluster munitions. The USA has not joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

“Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 states. As of 10 February 2022, a total of 123 states have joined the Convention, as 110 states parties and 13 signatories.” — Wikipedia 

It seems to me what President Biden really wants is to have all the cluster munition stockpiles in our earth village “clustering” together in Ukraine for a complete elimination. 

If so, it will be a blessing for the Ukraine people, a turning point to end the war in Ukraine, as well as a hope towards a sustainable Peace of the World.