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Letter to the editor: Ban cluster bombs

August 28, 2014

bombOPINION By ALLAN COOPER

President Obama was quoted recently saying that the murder of reporter James Foley by Islamic State militants was an act of terrorism. Obama’s saber-rattling speech was obviously provoked by the manner in which Foley was executed…vis-a-vis decapitation…which has been described by the popular press as “barbaric.”

And yet the U.S. is systematically killing innocent civilians every day in a far more barbaric manner.

For years, the U.S. has scattered unexploded, fist-sized “bomblets” (a.k.a., cluster bombs) over large areas of Afghanistan, Viet Nam, Laos, Iraq and Yemen. These bombs kill and maim in particularly excruciating ways. The majority of the victims of these unexploded bombs are children who accidentally detonate them. Cluster bombs cut babies in half, pepper their bodies with shrapnel, blacken the skin, smash heads and tear limbs.

The U.S. press won’t comment on this, far less film it, because it is considered too terrifying to witness. In conclusion, 63 U.S. financial institutions currently finance cluster munition production for producers such as Lockheed Martin, Textron and Raytheon. Eighty-three countries have ratified a ban on their use. The United States is not among them.

Allan Cooper is a retired Cal Poly professor.


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Oh, I get it, you want the U.S. to only use bombs that don’t hurt! Sorry professor, you lost me the second you questioned the bararism of the beheading of a journalist.


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Now if only I could spell…barbarism.


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Hey, why not ban all bombs. I’m sure that will work out well for us.


War is hell, as Sherman showed all too well in the Civil War. It should not be for the timid, so using whatever tactics is necessary is fine – but win the damn thing.


That’s what we don’t do. Win, anymore. We seemed to have this need for nation building, which is crap. Pinpricks are worthless and in fact inflame the hatred that countries have against us.


I’m not an interventionist and would rather see us stay out of wars unless there’s a direct harm to our country, as Afghanistan was. Get in, get out and tell those who are left, that we’ll do it again, if there’s more harm to our nation.


Here, in the U.S. – Drill, baby, drill and leave the rest of the world to fight over their worthless land.


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Obama has taken the crimes of Cheney/Bush and has expanded upon them many fold, as all US presidents are wont to do… as befits the most violent and terrorist nation in the world…


Be it obvious psychopaths like Cheney/Bush, or Nobel Peace Laureate Democratic President Obama, neoliberals all who work for the same rulers. Nary a hairs difference between them… Both wings of the one party oligarchy serve as a distraction while the plutocrats laugh all the way to the bank. It is amusing though to observe people act as if Obama is a Muslim socialist even as corporations have grown richer, pay less in taxes, pay lower wages and benefits, appoints Wall Street and corporate CEOs to high positions, assassinates US citizens and acts much like his predecessors and on par with the war criminal and genocidal dullard Reagan…


In a more sane and just world, Obama would join Cheney/Bush, Kissinger, Clinton’s, Carter, the surviving members of Nixon and Reagan and much of their administrations on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity…


Lots of money to be made, supplying the army with the tools of the trade… innocent men, women and CHILDREN being blown into a million bloody pieces matters not to psychopaths.. when there is money to be made…


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George Will has confirmed Nixon’s treason


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Obama is the first rorshauck president. He was whatever anyone wants him to be, which is how he campaigned. He is your hope, he is your dreams, he is the peacemaker, so much so that he was the 1st person to win a Nobel prize for what they thought he would do.


Nice to see that some who bought the snakeoil are seeing the light.


Politicians care about power, their pockets, and power. What is best for the nation is not on that list.


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Power, their pockets and self preservation.


Sorry for making it into a dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge list. By the way “snake plies ken”,best name ever!


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both Georges Bush were bait and switch masters marketers


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Describes all politicians accurately, I would say. Look at the left hand so you don’t see what the right hand is doing.


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…RORSCHACH……RORSCHACH……….RORSCHACH !!


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“President Obama was quoted recently saying that the murder of reporter James Foley by Islamic State militants was an act of terrorism.” – Allan Cooper


Allan. If Obama is moving his lips, he is a liar. Whether he is looking at his teleprompter which when doing so has been written by the liars within his cabinet, or when speaking off the cuff [which is when he really is at his worst/and honest], this man is an aider/abettor of terrorism. Period. Yet he claims to be of the Christian faith!


No. He is not. He is the antithesis of Christianity. You must look at his record since becoming the POTUS.


God appoints rulers and kings. For His pleasure. To fulfill His promises. In the time that He has foretold.


Time as “we know it” is coming to a close. The world has never seen a time such as what is happening now. ISIS has become a CRISIS. But you and those who think as you do won’t beleive it until they are here. But guess what? They are already among us.


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” God appoints…”

in America we still have elections to choose our presiding officers!


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Haha… Ok Zap, you got me. Point.


Submit to Government


13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. [NKJV, Romans 1-7]


I’ll admit that this is only the 1st verse. You can look at the rest either in your bible on your nightstand, or online. Then you can look into the context in its entirety.


We are nothing more than vehicles when voting.


God bless you……


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“Gesundheit!” …get well!


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Cluster bombs should be banned unless of course they are for use against anyone who seeks to destroy western civilization, Americans, mass murder men women and children in the name of religion, terrorize and murder civilians, behead men women and CHILDREN while screaming Ala is great etc.

A far more effective method would simply nuke them all.


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This guy must be a Muslim.


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Could be that, or your typical over-the-top, airhead, vacuous cranium university professor. Hell bent for all things liberal and anti-USA. Disregard him, and be concerned with our American President who holds, probably, the same beliefs and values as this professor.


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you can’t trust anyone with a university degree amirite?


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our president is centrist rightwing authoritarian .


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Lets just send ALLAN COOPER over there to disarm the DUDS


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plenty of folks disarmed by our ordinance


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If he did that, he’s never get his wish of 72 virgins.


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Vietnam was a long, long time ago. 9/11 is much more recent, the events of which awaken the powerful nation. Have the radical Islamic Jihadists chill out, and we can have the military go back to sleep; continue to butcher innocents, and they will eventually meet their fate.


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No lessons have been learned from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. If war is the only option, unleash the full fury of our soldiers and weaponry – fight it to win through complete destruction of the enemy.


Haven’t Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan shown that there is no in between?


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we have met the enemy and he is us


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I do not agree that we are the enemy but our growning complacency definately is.


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I suppose depends on what you think ” our ” means.


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Have you been living on the moon for the last 50 years? Yea go in with full fury. I agree but get that through the Congress we have had to deal with since WWII. Again hope you enjoyed your vacation on the moon.


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“Haven’t Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan shown that there is no in between?” Uh, no. What all three of those “wars” have fully illustrated is that we should not be engaging in any sort of warfare in areas that are not a full threat to the United States.


Vietnam was a mistake for the US to get into since it was functionally a civil war; was the outcome worth the 58,000 American lives lost there? To say that if we had gone “full in” really would not have changed the eventual outcome of a unified Vietnam. Were the Viet Cong truly inhumane, barbaric butchers ? Absolutely; how many Americans would resort to similar tactics if our country were invaded?


Iraq – what was our justification for an illegal invasion of that country? Falsified intelligence from the Bush Administration, with the vote for authorizing the President to use force in any way he wanted to do done so after two Senators offices were sent anthrax in the mail; those two Senators were both Democrats, Tom Daschle was the Majority Leader at the time.


Afghanistan: Yes, Osama bin Laden was operating out of Afghanistan, BUT, the US was offered to have him delivered to trial, IF the US would allow the trial to be held outside the US, something the Bush Administration could not allow; Bush wanted himself some war, so we invaded Afghanistan, supposedly looking for bin Laden. Don’t forget he was allowed to escape after he was surrounded on three sides, but Bush needed to have that boogyman still out there.


And the shame of your comment is that war is NOT the only option; it is just one thing that our country seems to be really good at; spending the blood and treasure of our country in a less than honest attempt to preserve our military machine and help those supplying it to keep getting richer.


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“BRAVO” well stated, reasoned and without all the hubris, hoopla and chest-pounding of xenophobes, old armchair “warriors” who shout at their monitors over your, and proud to say, my comment in response.

Betch’a most never served in the Armed Forces of our country! My guess, you did, as I did, as we know bluster-flack when we see, hear, and read it.


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Yes Bob we did loose a lot of lives in Vietnam and eventually the war. But here is the funny irony, today Vietnam and especially Ho Chi Min City, is thriving and is quite a bit Capitalist in it’s workings, so would they have been that without our interference?


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Hold on, let me wrap my head around your comment; are you actually saying that Ho Chi Min City is stridently capitalist because we killed so many Vietnamese, lost 58,000 American lives, ended up pulling out of the country allowing it to be completely overrun by the Viet Cong, and that is why Ho Chi Min City is “quite a bit Capitalist in it’s workings” – Really? Sheeze.


Capitalism and Communism are not mutually exclusive, look at China. And Capitalism is not in any way an expression of Democracy; unfettered, unregulated capitalism left unchecked will eventually dissolve into a total, complete monopoly, which is much closer to a totalitarian situation than anything resembling democracy.


Your comment seems to not be completely thought out.


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Love the hysteria. First it isn’t an idea of mine. Article I read (I believe Newsweek) talking about. Look how the Gov. was vs now.


Oh and yes I know how Capitalism scares you. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than a lot out there? Better than most.


Also in regards to China and others, do a little reading. They have said time and again that when a country leans towards Capitalism and the trading of goods with other countries and they start to live the good life, they start to demand and want more. More of what you say? FREEDOMS!! If you have read, what are the people of China demanding more of? Especially the young? Also in places like Iran, it is also the young going against the stanch traditional Gov.t and wanting some more freedoms to do like others in………..hmm where……………oh yea THE WEST!! Yea Bob Capitalism is the boogie man.


Sorry to confuse you with facts again Bob.


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Oh and one more for all the hand wrings out there about war. While I am not advocating one way or the other but merely stating fact, at no time in the history of man have we been more peaceful than present day.


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Democracy – Is two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner.


A republic and a democracy are identical in every aspect except one. In a republic the sovereignty is in each individual person. In a democracy the sovereignty is in the group.


We live in a Republic. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the (Democracy – Not) Republic for which it stands…..


I realize that our country is quickly becoming a democracy where the government has the authority to grant it self power and control. Such as presidential executive orders that establish or change laws. That is a democracy!


I fear it is too late to take the power away from the government without an armed conflict.


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the people of this country are the government your fears about the neccesity of elimination are frankly neurotic get a grip,lose the gripe, the people are the government. democracy is the process a republic is the intendeded result .


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they fought for and earned independence from foreign aggression the US Goliath was stymmied by a desire to be free. if there is an honorable explanation about Nixon’s treason George Will has yet to offer a believe able story.


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And Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. proved that.


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