Snap-O Fact #60

President Obama singed the permanent law on March 11, 2009 prohibiting the United States to sell the controversial weapons called cluster bombs. The law especially prohibits sales to places where civilians are present. In order to completely enact the law nationally, this legislation bans the export of cluster bombs from anywhere in the entire country, including sales by the U.S. military. Since these weapons can kill civilians long after they are used in a conflict, this new law was enacted to minimize civilian casualties by these cruel weapons. This legislation was decidedly not a unilateral action. In fact it moved the United States closer to its foreign allies since 100 countries, some of them are members of NATO, had previously signed the treaty to ban cluster bombs.

Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/13/us-national-security-obama-administration

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/would-obama-ban-cluster-bombs-advocates-hope-so/

http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/03/12/us-cluster-bomb-exports-banned