Cluster bombs

The little state of Rhode Island serves as a great model for all that is wrong with the American political system.  Citizens know full well that Congress is controlled by campaign money, and it serves the interests of campaign donors and not the public.  The public favors Medicare for all, but not Congress, the public favors bringing banks and the financial world under greater control, but not Congress, the public favors a $15. per hour minimum wage, but not Congress, the public favors regulation of drug costs, but not Congress.

Cluster bombs are some of the cruelest available weapons of war, banned in 119 countries and counting. This June, in a close vote of 204-216, the House of Representatives voted against an amendment to stop the sale of US made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, which uses them to commit grievous human rights violations in Yemen.

(COMMONDREAMS) Despite the international ban on cluster bombs, more than 150 financial institutions have invested $28 billion in companies that produce them, according to a new report released Thursday.
Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among the 158 banks, pension funds, and other firms listed in the “Hall of Shame” compiled by the Netherlands-based organization PAX, a member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

21st Century Wire says…
A review of all the Top Stories from this week – for your consideration.

Henningsen on RT: 'US has a covert agenda in Raqqa, Syria'

21st Century Wire says…
International law appears to be anything but concrete for close, Western allies.
In the following RT report, it is revealed that Saudi Arabia has been using cluster bombs, banned by an international convention for their devastating effects on civilian populations, in Yemen.

21st Century Wire says…
A review of all the Top Stories from this week – for your consideration.

The UN embargo/blockade against Yemen and the Yemenis violates Genocide Convention article II (e):  Deliberately inflicting on the group, conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” ~ Prof. Francis A Boyle Photo collage from Hussain Albukhati, Sanaa, Yemen These boys are Abdu and Marwan. Their father was Mohammed Nasser Thuknah. These two boys […]

After almost a year of civil war, the conflicting forces in Yemen sat down on December 15 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the prospect of finding a political solution to the conflict that has been raging since March 2015. While this is a necessary step towards ending the violence that has killed thousands, crippled infrastructure and led to a critical humanitarian crisis, the peace talks should include a mechanism for rebuilding this impoverished nation.

Saudi ground forces invaded Yemen for the first time in this war on August 27. Officially, the Saudi government characterizes the invasion as an incursion that will be limited and temporary. The Saudi government made similar representations about their terror-bombing of Yemen that began March 26 and has continued on a near-daily basis to the present.

Yemeni people are not bad people, they are good people.  They want to be respected, they want their sovereignty to be respected.  We did not wage a war, a war was brought upon us.  Our issue was an internal one and it would have been sorted out internally.
— Hanan al-Harazi