A Democrat-led effort to stop the Biden administration from transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine is turning into a bipartisan effort, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) offering to be the Republican co-sponsor on the effort.
On Friday, July 7, the Biden administration announced plans to begin transferring to Ukraine a type of cluster munition known as the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM). The plan quickly caught criticism from members of the president’s own party, citing concerns about the weapons, which release a cluster of dozens of submunitions that don’t always immediately explode.
Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) were among those Democratic lawmakers who opposed the DPICM transfers to Ukraine. On Friday, Ms. Jacobs and Ms. Omar introduced an amendment (pdf) to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would bar export licensing to transfer cluster munitions from the United States abroad.
“Our international coalition is strong because we’re united together and because we’re living up to our values—but sending cluster munitions defies these two tenets,” Ms. Jacobs said in a July 6 press statement. “Many of our partners don’t support this move with many having already banned cluster munitions from their stockpiles. We’ve seen Russia’s horrific use of cluster munitions in Ukraine—and we shouldn’t cede the moral high ground by criticizing their actions and then deciding to send cluster munitions ourselves.”
Ms. Omar said, “If the U.S. is going to be a leader on international human rights, we must not participate in human rights abuses.”
On Monday, Mr. Gaetz volunteered to be the Republican co-sponsor on Ms. Jacobs’s amendment.
“Democrats used to call the use of cluster bombs a war crime, and that war crime is now an American export. We’ve just learned that there are some Democrats who are working against the Biden administration” with regard to these munitions, Mr. Gaetz said in a segment of his “Firebrand” podcast on Monday.
Mr. Gaetz noted he’d criticized Ms. Jacobs “a great deal” in the past, but saw her opposition to sending cluster munitions to Ukraine as a common-ground issue.
“I’m here to tell you is that I’m going to be the Republican co-sponsor of the Jacobs amendment before the House Rules Committee,” he added. “We have an opportunity, with bipartisanship, to stand against the warmongering Bidens.”
The risk of cluster munitions leaving behind small unexploded bomblets that are hard to track raises the concern that these bomblets may be triggered by innocent civilians later on. Mr. Gaetz said these cluster munitions have been used throughout “the world’s bloodiest and most inhumane wars” in places like Laos, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria.
“Children will be left without limbs and without parents because of this decision by Joe Biden if we do not work together in a bipartisan fashion to stop it,” Mr. Gaetz said.
Bipartisan Support, Opposition For Cluster Munitions Transfer
It remains to be seen which lawmakers will join in support of Ms. Jacobs’s amendment. Several other Democratic lawmakers have spoken in opposition to the transfer of DPICMs to Ukraine, including Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
Numerous Republicans have also spoken in opposition to providing weapons to Ukraine. Those who have specifically criticized the cluster munitions transfers include Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.)
While the opposition to the cluster munitions transfer is bipartisan, so is the support.
Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had supported transfers of cluster munitions to Ukraine for months. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mr. McCaul said the weapons “would be a game-changer” for Ukraine.
“Russia is dropping with impunity cluster bombs in Ukraine, in the country of Ukraine right now,” Mr. McCaul told CNN. “All the Ukrainians and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] are asking for is to give them the same weapons the Russians have to use in their own country against Russians who are in their own country. They do not want these to be used in Russia. They want these as self-defense to use against Russians.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he had “some real qualms” about the plan to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, but had been reassured by the Biden administration that they’d taken enough steps to minimize the risk to civilians.
“It causes me some concern but I do appreciate that the Biden administration has really grappled with the risks and reached agreements with the Ukrainian military about using these munitions in a way to dislodge the Russian military while minimizing risks to Ukrainian civilians,” he said.
While announcing the decision to start transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine on Friday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the military had selected DPICMs with a “dud rate” of no more than 2.5 percent, meaning there’d be a relatively low chance of submunitions failing to explode when they’re initially released. Mr. Sullivan said Russian cluster munitions, by comparison, have a dud rate of between 30 and 40 percent.
“We recognize that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” Mr. Sullivan said. “This is why we’ve deferred—deferred the decision for as long as we could. But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians because Ukraine does not have enough artillery. That is intolerable to us.”
