Why Is (Pacifist) Spain Selling Cluster Bombs to Libya?
As Europe’s war with Libya enters its second month, reports are emerging that forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi have used cluster bombs in their siege of Misrata, the only rebel-held city in western Libya.
Cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapons that eject dozens (and sometimes hundreds or even thousands) of smaller bomblets that are contained within it over a wide swath of territory. The most common types of cluster bombs are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy armoured vehicles, but other varieties are used to destroy runways, electric power transmission lines, disperse chemical or biological weapons or to scatter land mines.
Because cluster bombs cannot be fired precisely, they are defined as indiscriminate weapons. As such, they place civilians at grave risk, especially when the weapons are fired into populated areas. Cluster bombs are also notorious for leaving behind a large number of unexploded bomblets that are costly to locate and remove and often kill or maim civilians years or even decades after a conflict has ended.
Concern over the harm and risks that cluster bombs pose to civilians led to the adoption in May 2008 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of cluster bombs. The treaty entered into force on August 1, 2010, and it has now been signed by 108 states and formally ratified by 56. Libya (like the United States) is not a signatory to the convention. But Spain is.
As it turns out, expended shell casings of the cluster bombs used by Libyan forces show them to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which distributes 21 bomblet sub-munitions designed to kill and to penetrate light armour. According to the markings, components from the 120-millimeter rounds were manufactured in Spain in 2007.
Spain did not sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions until 2008 and therefore did nothing illegal by providing Gaddafi with his stockpile of cluster bombs. But considering that the Socialist government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has for years been fervently preaching the gospel of pacifism, the arms sales to Libya are rank hypocrisy.
Since taking office in 2004, Zapatero has worked overtime to craft his public persona as a “convinced pacifist.” His first official act as pacifist-in-chief was, famously, to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. That decision was not only wildly popular with Spanish voters, but it also cemented Zapatero’s pacifist credentials on the world stage.
After facing a barrage of criticism from non-pacifists at home and abroad that his Iraq policy amounted to appeasing Islamic terrorists, Zapatero reluctantly deployed extra troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. But just in case that deployment might cast doubt on his commitment to pacifistic ideals, Zapatero dictated strict rules of engagement that forbid Spanish troops in Afghanistan from using lethal force, a “caveat” that to this day renders useless their presence in the country.
In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Zapatero shed some light on his pacifist vision for achieving world peace. Using the flowery post-modern verbiage for which he is now famous, Zapatero declared: “Culture is always peace.” In case his message was unclear, Zapatero followed up by telling Time magazine that “sexual equality is a lot more effective against terrorism than military strength.”
Zapatero has also been careful to appoint only pacifists as Spanish ministers of defense. Zapatero’s first defense minister, the controversial José Bono Martínez, proclaimed: “I am a minister of defense and I would rather be killed than to kill.” He then issued orders prohibiting Spanish troops in Afghanistan from harming Taliban fighters.
Zapatero’s second minister of defense, José Antonio Alonso Suárez, believed it was his job to demilitarize the Spanish military and to turn the newly disarmed forces into an NGO-like humanitarian organization instead. To achieve his vision, he purged from the senior ranks of the Spanish military those officers who refused to abandon the silly belief that the main mission of the military should be to defend Spanish sovereignty.
During her swearing-in ceremony, Zapatero’s third (and current) defense minister, Carme Chacón, proudly proclaimed: “I am a pacifist, as are the armies of the 21st century.” Again: “I am a pacifist woman, and the Army is also pacifist.” Her biggest achievement as Spain’s pacifism minister has been to unilaterally withdraw Spanish troops from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. “Mission accomplished. It’s time to go home,” she declared, cementing Spain’s image as an unreliable military partner.
Zapatero, his ink, those in the UN, and our CFR controled Government are of the world. They desire money, power, or both. They worship the creation, not the Creator. So, there should be no shock when Spain sells weapons to whomever.
cause spain is nuts. remember the inquisition…and they want money
okay, i don’t remember the inquisition personally
Spaniards vote with the brains God gave them. Hence the results.
For those who love Spanish rhymes:
A Castilla y León, nuevo mundo dió Colón
Luego vino Zapatero y nos hizo un agujero.
and how comes that Kadhafi forces were provided by the pacifist German the “Heckler and Koch G36″ arms too ?
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15014836,00.html
Hello there! The US used cluster bombs on citizens in Yugoslavia in the 1990′s. Remember that?
Remember Bill Clinton’s crafting of his public persona as a convinced pacifist?
How is that relevant? First of all, this was over a decade before the treaty banning their use, and the US is still not a signitory of that treaty. Spain is a signatory to the treaty, and had supposedly been “Pacifist” for several years prior to these sales being made.
US is the world’s largest arms dealer.
There are too many f___ing ads on this website. That is all.
Maybe it would be better if the Spaniards held onto their weapons just in case they have to face another onslaught of Muslim conquerors just as they did in about 711. I’m just saying….
That would be too funny
They gave monkeys civil rights, they desecrated the graves of those fallen in the Civil War, Zapatero intentionally sat down when Old Glory paraded before him on Victory Day… etc. etc.
If there is a God, the Spaniards will have their comeuppance: some for being evil, some for being weak.
Does 4 million British pensioners settling on the Costa del Sol count?
Cruel and unusual punishment! :p
The first half of the first sentence told me that this article would be full of holes.
“As Europe’s war with Libya enters its second month, reports are emerging that forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi..”
Europe doesn’t have a war going with Libya.
Libya belongs to Obama. Lock, stock and barrel the war with Libya belongs to Obama; a name that is conspicuously absent from this article.
Muammar Gaddafi isn’t a Libyan strongman. He is a Colonel, that could have made himself a general or king. But most importantly he is a third world, tin-horn dictator that has made an absolute fool out of Obama while the entire world watched.
So now; for selling weapons to Gaddafi we are supposed to condemn Spain as a sham of post-modern morality, where “cherished” principles are tossed to the wind whenever they are not economically convenient.
And at the same time we are supposed to stand and clap and cheer Obama for selling out America and Europe while with NATO military force he has seriously endangered our entire planet in order to “settle” the score on a personal level against Gaddafi for proving beyond any doubt that he is a foolish idiot.
It is almost unbearably impossible to imagine how Obama could possibly make any more of a mess than he already has in two short years.
Then again, here we are all depressed and upset about Spain helping Gaddafi while Obama is busy arming and giving al-Qaida everything they need to take complete control of Libya as part of their international terrorist network.
Hello Syria. Anyone know where Obama is..?
More damning proof that the Red-Brown alliance that began with Stalin & Hitler seven decades ago is still with us. And hatred of the Jews remains the glue that binds. Only this time, the Warsaw ghetto is armed with state-of-the-art nuclear weapons.
I guess even to the socialists in Spain, when you come right down to it, a Euro is still a Euro, no matter who gives it to you. Even if it’s a psychotic dictator. Remember, the Europeans also didn’t see any problems doing business with Saddam Hussein in the “Oil-for-Food” program. There must be something in the European character that has a soft spot for Muslim dictators. I don’t even know why we bother with the Europeans anymore.
so did the world, and America !
The one thing I saw in their that might have some merit is his idea about sexual equality.
My interpretation of that is — if these angry men could have some sex, within someone other than a fellow terrorist or something other than a goat — then it might relieve some of their repressed angry rage. That and the ability to drink a beer every now and then. Or watch college football. Or perhaps not live in the same exact mud hut their ancestors lived in 2,000 years ago. Or just go to the beach and see pretty women in bikinis.
Just a thought. Please continue.
Remember, the greediest people are Socialists and former Communists. They
are amoral, if not wholly immoral. Spain is as pacifist as Sweden and Switzerland were neutral during WWII (on the German side). Money talks and
nobody walks. Such is life in the bazaar of the hypocrites.
Nothing new-the military/industrial complex is alive and well. While young people give their lives for trumped-up causes, the oil companies and arms dealers get richer and richer. The public is duped, while politicians callously take money from these oligarchs and pretend to help the country and its citizens.
Just a few thoughts:
1. When did Spain decide to be France?
2. Does Zapatero not realize that Spain is included in the proposed Caliphate the radical Muslims would like to reinstate?
3. And is Zapatero too stupid to realize that sexual equality must be backed by force or it won’t last? If it weren’t for the fact that men by and large can physically pound us women, sexual equality would be the de facto world norm. Only where MEN were willing to fight for women’s equality, did it come about. Yes, it is a more advanced cultural state. However, the culture itself has to advance to the point of desiring it before it can happen.
Gah. Stupid is everywhere.
…. Why Is (“Modified Marxist,” ie: Fascist) Spain Selling Cluster Bombs to Libya …?
Why?
Because just as poverty seems the ideal aphrodisiac to “sex tourists,” so does a poverty of moral integrity provide impetus to the 20%-Hard-Left’s any-means-to-an-end inciters, encouragers and facilitators!