"Representatives from more than 100 countries are to meet to discuss outlawing the use of cluster bombs. " Not attending are US and China, and other nations that produce and store them. The Pope does support the cause - though its not clear how the Holy See effects munition deployment policy.
Even years after combat is over, the bomblets from cluster bombs can still main and kill hapless civilians. This of course makes the weapon seem particularly callous. But beyond tacit agreement between warring parties, I'm not sure that it is useful to go through a catalogue of weapons and say "this one is good", but "that one is really beyond the pail". Designed correctly, all weapons are dangerous. Maybe the problem is the war they are used in?
Trite, I know. Maybe there are so many small conflicts that are really beyond the judgemental worlds control, that even superficial fixes seem worth making. But that's much like asking armed robbers to please not use shotguns, because of the terrible noise they make when they go off.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was flawed in a similar way. Instead of focusing on the problems that capitalism and communism were (and still are) producing, members protested that they didn't want to die in a nuclear war. Well, I wouldn't like to be hacked by a machete either.
We now accept that communism was a much bigger blight than any war could achieve. And the West is slowly accepting that results of unfettered capitalism are keeping vast numbers of humans in poverty. Continuing to reconcile real problems is lengthy, boring and sometimes futile but gesture politics is truly callous.
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