NATO is under attack from so many forces (mainly the EU wanting a common defence policy) that it’s hard to work out what will eventually break up the alliance. But the cluster bomb conference in Dublin that starts today may be the one.
No one likes cluster bombs, and we’d all like to live in a world without them. But there is a difference between smart bombs and “dumb” bombs – a difference observed by the MoD, which wants to keep using its smart munitions like the M73 and M83 which self-destruct if they don’t detonate. The Foreign Office disagrees and we’re having what Lord Malloch Brown calls an “internal discussion” – i.e. a Prime Minister who can’t decide.
The risks raised by a Dublin Treaty are many, including the prospect of British soldiers hauled up in court if they call in US air support which then use the wrong kind of cluster bombs. It says much that this Dublin conference isn’t being attended by the US, Russia and China – i.e. the countries that take defence seriously. It’s like a Kyoto Treaty for the defence world, except the signatories may actually keep their word this time.
The US State Department is warning what the stakes are. It says American forces “simply cannot fight by design or doctrine without holding out at least the possibility of using cluster munitions”. So America would have to ditch NATO and go it alone in on missions where it judges cluster bombing to be on the cards, or pull out of joint NATO training exercises because it is operating on fundamentally different rules of engagement from its allies.
The danger is that Britain gets sucked into a false choice between using all cluster bombs or banning them all. It’s crucial that the Dublin conference distinguishes between the “dumb” and “smart” cluster bombs and finds a way of keeping NATO intact. For those of us who hold the Atlantic alliance dear, these are anxious times.
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