Treaty seeks to ban cluster bombs within 8 years

File under: Are these assholes really trying? Do they actually care? Or are they just going through the fucking motions?

Diplomats from more than 100 nations agreed on a treaty Wednesday to ban current types of cluster bombs and require the destruction of stockpiles within eight years.

However, the talks did not involve the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs: the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. And the pact leaves the door open for new types that could pick targets more precisely and contain self-destruct technology. [emphasis mine]

Cluster munitions, fired by artillery or dropped from aircraft, scatter dozens or hundreds of "bomblets" across an area as big as two football fields to attack concentrations of troops and vehicles. Critics of the weapon complain that bomblets often fail to detonate on impact and instead explode when civilians later stumble on them.

A couple things come to mind.

Why eight years? Six months is adequate to stop using cluster bombs and destroy stockpiles. Fuck, one month would work.

Why does the US always fall on the wrong side of each of these agreements? Or does it matter? Non proliferation agreement &ndash India?

Oh fucking great. We've got Australia, Liechtenstein, Chad, Switzerland (all assumed) signing on but not the U S, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan.

What's the fucking point? Just asking.

Why doesn't the agreement include current and future types of such munitions? Ya know countries will come up with the next new thing.

Why allow cluster bombs with fewer than 10 such bomblets? Is that an attempt to kill only a limited number of civilians later?

Sometimes these agreements make me goddamn sick.

Click on the headline and read the other outrageous provisions.

Note: Headline links to source.