Editor's note: Keith Lamb, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a University of Oxford graduate with a Master of Science in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are China's international relations and "socialism with Chinese characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. 

It has now been confirmed that U.S.-supplied cluster munitions, as part of an $800 million security package, have been used by Ukraine against Russia. U.S. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said: "They are using them appropriately. They're using them effectively, and they are actually having an impact on Russia's defensive formations."

The justification for sending these munitions is that they allow Ukrainian forces to target larger concentrations of Russian forces with fewer ammunition rounds, which is further justified as being needed to alleviate ammunition shortages.

However, due to the indiscriminate scattering of cluster munitions, which can remain unexploded leading to civilian casualties, decades later, these weapons are banned by over a hundred countries on moral grounds. Indeed, U.S. allies have all said they are opposed to these abhorrent weapons, and the move, due to the grave threat it poses to civilian lives, long after the conflict, has been condemned by international nongovernmental organization Amnesty International.

The supply of cluster munitions is being sold to the public as a "means to an end move" which has only been approved after difficult soul-searching by U.S. President Joe Biden, who deems these weapons necessary. If this is the case history, the ultimate judge, says otherwise – when it comes to war and the weapons of war the U.S. has been morally bankrupt for decades.

In the 1960s and 70s, the U.S. targeted Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam with cluster munitions. According to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, in Vietnam alone, between 1965 and 1973, 413,130 tonnes of cluster munitions were dropped over Vietnam. The Red Cross has reported that Laos is contaminated by around 80 million cluster submunitions.

Unfortunately, the U.S. did not reconsider the use of cluster munitions despite clear evidence of their horrific nature that continues to this day in South East Asia. According to Human Rights Watch, 61,000 aerial-delivered cluster munitions were released in Iraq in 1991, which represents a quarter of all bombs dropped. In 1999, NATO dropped 1,765 cluster bombs, containing 295,000 bomblets on Kosovo.

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) recorded 13,000 cluster munitions being used in the first three weeks of the invasion of Iraq, in 2003. Between October 2001 and March 2002, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the U.S. dropped 1,228 cluster bombs containing 248,056 bomblets in Afghanistan.

These figures represent tremendous suffering for civilians in these countries. The Red Cross reports that in Laos alone cluster munitions account for roughly 300 yearly casualties. Due to the shiny "toy" like nature of the bombs, children are prone to picking them up leading to death or severe handicaps. According to Handicap International, in Kosovo, 62.5 percent of the civilian victims in the year after the conflict (March 1999–August 2000) were boys under 18.

Various liberal public speakers have claimed that Moscow has used cluster munitions against Ukraine so the U.S. is now justified in supplying them to Ukraine. However, considering the U.S. has had no compunctions using these munitions in the past, this moral tit-for-tat argument holds no weight. Indeed, if it is true that Russia has been using cluster munitions, why has the U.S. not supplied these munitions long ago?

One answer is that it's not just Ukraine running short of munitions – the U.S. is too. As such, the supply of cluster munitions represents a cleaning out of old stock because thereares not enough new conventional weapons that can be supplied by the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Perhaps when there were enough conventional weapons, the U.S. didn't want to escalate the conflict. Using cluster munitions against Laos or an Afghan army is one thing but Moscow has teeth and can retaliate. So far, Moscow has denied the use of cluster munitions, which is plausible considering the Russians, relatively speaking, are hardly in dire straits. However, Putin has said he will review using cluster munitions depending on Ukraine's use of them.

Biden can justify the use of cluster munitions all he wants as a way to prevent the fall of a NATO-backed Ukraine, but the Russians, seeing a NATO push east as a threat to their integrity, feel morality is on their side in the conflict – certainly the conflict is on their border and Russia seeing it as an existential threat, will never back down. Thus, the risk of further escalation, either due to a Russian response or because cluster munitions represent the increasingly thicker wedge of U.S. escalation and immorality, which could tiptoe into justifying more extreme and immoral weapons in the future, is terrifying.

The facts are that Ukraine is low on munitions and evidently, the U.S. doesn't have the industrial capacity to fight a conventional war against a near equal any time soon (nor would it be desirable) – so why risk escalation? 

Russia will never back down but it will negotiate. The democratic will of the entire global community, who fear escalation may lead to a grey rhino event, such as the use of tactical nuclear weapons and worse the ending of humanity, all desire peace. Consequently, recognizing this situation and that the use of cluster munitions is neither moral nor a pragmatic game changer, the U.S. must reconsider its actions and begin by taking practical steps, along with Russia, to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict through any means necessary.

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