Some Weapons Should Never Be Used

There are some types of weapons that the U.S. should not send to Ukraine because there are some types of weapons that shouldn’t be sent anywhere.

Surprising no one, Max Boot comes up with the wrong answer on cluster munitions for Ukraine:

Denying Ukraine all the lawful weapons it needs is misguided. Peace in Ukraine will not come through the work of Western human rights campaigners, important as it is, but through hard fighting by the Ukrainian armed forces. The Ukrainians are in the right, and they deserve all the help we can give them — and that includes cluster munitions.

The case for sending these weapons boils down to a few claims: the Ukrainian government should get pretty much whatever it asks for, the governments providing the weapons should always defer to the Ukrainian government’s judgment regardless of the potential dangers and costs, and anything that can supposedly hasten the end of the war will save lives in the long run and is therefore justified. The first two are unreasonable, and the third is just an endorsement of the vicious logic that the ends justify the means.

There are some types of weapons that the U.S. should not send to Ukraine because there are some types of weapons that shouldn’t be sent anywhere. Cluster munitions are definitely on that list. Ideally, the U.S. wouldn’t still have stockpiles of cluster munitions, but until now at least the government wasn’t exporting or using them. Biden’s decision takes the U.S. in the wrong direction on an issue where it had been gradually improving.

Now these weapons are being sent to an ongoing conflict where they will be used and where we can be certain they will end up killing both Ukrainian civilians and soldiers sooner or later. Members of Congress are right to object to this decision. Congress should approve the amendment that would block the transfer of these weapons.