cross-posted from: https://lemmus.org/post/587773
Edit: antiwar article, quotes for both articles
The rounds, which could help destroy Russian tanks, are part of a new military aid package for Ukraine set to be unveiled in the next week. The munitions can be fired from U.S. Abrams tanks that, according to a person familiar with the matter, are expected be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Although Britain sent depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine earlier this year, this would be the first U.S. shipment of the ammunition and will likely stir controversy. It follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite concerns over the dangers such weapons pose to civilians.
The United States used depleted uranium munitions in massive quantities in the 1990 and 2003 Gulf Wars and the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia in 1999.
Still, the radioactive material could add to Ukraine’s massive post-war clean-up challenge. Parts of the country are already strewn with unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs and other munitions and hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines.
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/09/03/us-to-arm-ukraine-with-toxic-depleted-uranium-ammunition/
But at this point in the war, the administration has shown it’s not concerned about damaging Ukraine’s environment. In July, the US started arming Ukraine with cluster bombs, which spread small submunitions over large areas. Unexploded submunitions, or bomblets, can be found by civilians years or decades after use. Because of their history of killing civilians, cluster munitions have been banned by over 100 countries.
Aren’t the Ukrainians the ones who are choosing whether or not to use them?
I guess the west should pledge to only engage in environmentally sustainable war? Certified organic thermobaric bombs?
The Ukrainian leadership is. But they are not the ones about to be born wirh painful defects.
To clarify, I am on Ukraine’s side in this war.
But being on the right side of a war of invasion doesn’t magically turn the Ukrainian military leadership into omniscient saints.
Depleted Uranium should not be used in any war. Period. If Ukraine is firing it at invaders on Ukrainian soil - and the Russians will be using it too I expect - the legacy is going to be horrendous.
The Russians have ALREADY been using it all along.
I get where you’re coming from, but it’s their country and their own children and families at risk both now and in future. I’m not about to make their decision for them, and I don’t think any of us have the right to.
I get where you’re coming from too. Especially since the Russians appear to have added that to their list of crimes. Fight uranium with uranium.
I’m very wary of the argument that people can use whatever weapons they like in their own country. War crimes are a thing in international law for good reason.
I’m a strong supporter of the “court of last resort” the ICC, and I firmly believe that it’s the duty of all the world’s citizens to oppose war crimes, genocides, and crimes against humanity wherever they occur.
Fighting war crimes with war crimes happens a lot - we have seen it in the past year in Ethiopia as well - but a line has to be drawn somewhere or attrocities keep escalating and everyone becomes monsters.
For me, that line is here. I appreciate that for you the line might be further along though.