A significant moral threshold has been crossed, critics argue, following the confirmation that the U.S. has provided cluster munitions to Ukraine for deployment against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.
While Kirby maintained that the controversial weapons are making a positive impact in Ukraine's fight against Russia, skeptics argue the administration is disregarding the indiscriminate harm these weapons can cause, marking a deviation from the long-held American principles of proportionality and discrimination in warfare.
President Biden, acknowledging the contentious nature of the decision, termed it a "Difficult decision".
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The Biden administration, in the face of criticism over the potential for "War crimes" due to the use of cluster bombs, has argued that the weapons transfer does not undermine America's "Moral authority".
National Security Council spokesman Jake Sullivan defended the administration, claiming their moral authority comes from "Supporting a country under a brutal, vicious attack by its neighbor with missiles and bombs raining down in its cities, killing its civilians, destroying its schools, its churches, its hospitals." The Washington Post reported that the president's decision bypassed U.S. law prohibiting the production, use, or transfer of cluster munitions with a "Dud rate" of more than 1 percent.
The Post wrote further: "Biden circumvented the law under a rare provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows the president to provide aid, regardless of arms export restrictions, as long as he determines that doing so is in vital U.S. national security interest." This maneuver, coupled with the Biden administration's defense of its decision, has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives and human rights advocates alike.
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