Comment & Debate
Jeffrey Benner. “The Case Against Cluster Bombs”. Mother Jones. May 28, 1999 – At a 1997 Pentagon briefing regarding the land mine ban, the Pentagon said that while it supports the land-mine ban, it would like to see the word “primarily” inserted at the beginning of the definition. They believe this would insure that cluster bombs would be exempted from the ban, since they are not “primarily designed” to function as land mines. If “primarily” were not included, one Pentagon briefer explained, “that could knock out a number of systems that we really do need — some of our runway and island munitions and that sort of thing, and that’s what we’re concerned about. We want to be sure that if we’re talking about a land mine ban we’re talking about land mines.”