Posted originally on the CTH on July 8, 2023 | Sundance
This latest development from the Biden administration is concerning on many levels.
The White House is announcing their approval to send cluster bombs to Ukraine in an effort to provide a very deadly and dangerous type of munitions that have been resoundingly criticized by most of the western alliance. Cluster bombs are not just dangerous on the battlefield, they are also notorious for creating collateral civilian damage.
That said, when you overlay the reality of the Ukraine policy, essentially World War Reddit, being driven in large part by a psychological operation that is challenging to figure out from a reality perspective; in combination with very unstable people in the U.S. government seemingly playing war within the larger policy agenda; one must also look at this from a Russian intelligence position.
Is the Biden administration really willing to deploy cluster bombs or is this some PR narrative intended to give the impression the U.S. is willing to up the stakes in the use of weapons that will continue escalating, regardless of consequence. There are a lot of unstable minds within this larger Ukraine narrative as promoted by the White House, Pentagon and State Dept (CIA).
WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration on Friday announced it will include cluster bombs in the United States’ next $800 million weapons package for Ukraine, as well as armored vehicles and air defense missiles.
President Joe Biden acknowledged it took some time to be convinced to provide the controversial weapons, but he stressed the importance of supporting Ukraine’s ammunition supplies while preserving U.S. inventories, as well as discussing how Kyiv plans to deploy the bombs.
“We’re in a situation where Ukraine continues to be brutally attacked across the board by these cluster munitions with dud rates that are very high,” Biden said in an upcoming interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan also responded to humanitarian concerns about the controversial cluster bombs by emphasizing the need to provide Kyiv with artillery and by saying that Ukraine has already been targeted by Russia’s cluster bombs.
“We recognize that cluster munitions created risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” Sullivan said during a White House press briefing. “This is why we deferred the decision for as long as we could, but there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery.”
Cluster munitions are designed to destroy multiple targets at once by dropping explosive “bomblets” over a wide area, risking potentially harming civilians or other unintended targets. Both sides are already actively using the weapons. Ukrainian cluster munitions killed at least eight civilians in Izium last year, according to Human Rights Watch. (read more)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Friday said President Joe Biden and fellow NATO leaders will discuss at next week’s summit what steps Ukraine must complete to join NATO and that Kyiv has additional reforms to make, as it fights Russian invaders.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Ukraine will not be voted into NATO membership at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, but he encouraged Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to attend to discuss the matter.
“The NATO summit will dive into the question of NATO’s relationship with Ukraine both the question of its pathway towards future membership and the question of an ongoing partnership that has existed for several years,” he said. (read more)
Centinel2012 