Stop Cluster Munitions from harming the innocent!

Cluster Munitions or Cluster Bombs are large weapons deployed from either the air or ground and release dozens if not hundreds of smaller weapons usually called bomblets.They are unpredictable as to where they will explode as they are deployed in clusters with no real aim point and are simply at the mercy of the most prevailing wind.They are also indiscriminate and are known to cause severe injuries and death to innocent civilians even after conflicts have ended because of malfunction and failing to detonate on impact, allowing them to essentially become anti-personal mines even though they are many times more deadly then an anti-personal mine.The bomblets that deploy from cluster munitions are designed to kill and as such tend to do so more then wound when they become relics of war lying in wait at places that cannot accurately be predicted. Finding and retriving these bomblets is also very costly and dangerous and is very rarely done by those who use Cluster Munitions. Currently there is a convention working to get the use of cluster weapons ratified and abandoned. At the moment of this being written, 98 Countries have signed the Cluster Munitions Ban and 13 have ratified it. When it is ratified by 30 countries it will enter into force. As of yet The United States of America who used Cluster Munitions in Iraq that have injured and killed many innocent civilinas including young children has not signed nor ratified the Cluster Munitions Ban.This Petition is a hope that when it reaches or surpasses it's targeted 50,000 signers and is then sent to the Secretary of State that perhaps then the Government will realize how many people are actively seeking to find a resolution to this horrible tool of murder that the US Government seeks to employ within Iraq.

Cluster Munitions or Cluster Bombs are large weapons deployed from either the air or ground and release dozens if not hundreds of smaller weapons usually called bomblets.They are unpredictable as to where they will explode as they are deployed in clusters with no real aim point and are simply at the mercy of the most prevailing wind.They are also indiscriminate and are known to cause severe injuries and death to innocent civilians even after conflicts have ended because of malfunction and failing to detonate on impact, allowing them to essentially become anti-personal mines even though they are many times more deadly then an anti-personal mine.The bomblets that deploy from cluster munitions are designed to kill and as such tend to do so more then wound when they become relics of war lying in wait at places that cannot accurately be predicted. Finding and retriving these bomblets is also very costly and dangerous and is very rarely done by those who use Cluster Munitions. Currently there is a convention working to get the use of cluster weapons ratified and abandoned. At the moment of this being written, 98 Countries have signed the Cluster Munitions Ban and 13 have ratified it. When it is ratified by 30 countries it will enter into force. As of yet The United States of America who used Cluster Munitions in Iraq that have injured and killed many innocent civilinas including young children has not signed nor ratified the Cluster Munitions Ban.This Petition is a hope that when it reaches or surpasses it's targeted 50,000 signers and is then sent to the Secretary of State that perhaps then the Government will realize how many people are actively seeking to find a resolution to this horrible tool of murder that the US Government seeks to employ within Iraq.

Dear Secretary of State Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton,

I am writing to urge you to sign and ratify the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is essential that the United States of America become an influential role in the abandonment and destruction of these indiscriminate weapons that are known for injuring and killing innocent civilians.

This international treaty comprehensively prohibits cluster munitions, requires destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions within eight years and clearance of contaminated land within ten years, and recognises the rights of individuals and communities affected by the weapon to receive assistance.

Since December 2008, a total of 98 governments have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions including stockpilers, former users and producers of the weapon, as well as affected countries from every region of the world.

As you are aware, this comprehensive international ban on cluster munitions is the most important humanitarian and disarmament treaty of the last decade. With full implementation the treaty will make a real difference to countless lives and livelihoods.

Cluster munitions as you surely know are an indiscriminate weapon of war that have no real aim point.And as such they poses a major problem for civilians who must suffer the woes of residing in a war zone.Cluster munitions have no guarantee of striking their designated targets and they also have a relatively high chance of not detonating on impact. Allowing them to remain still deadly and on the ground where innocent civilians can come into contact with these weapons of war long after any engagement or war were over.

Those in power have a duty to use their power to protect those placed in harms way by these careless weapons that we have actively used in Iraq.We must take the step in becoming an influential and conscious Country that will abandon and destroy these atrocious munitions in order to follow through to a brighter and more hopeful future.

As a strong willed person in power who has subsequently opposed the former administration on its conduct in the war in Iraq I know you will be wishing to prevent further suffering from the horrors of cluster munitions and as such the United States must join the ban on cluster munitions now.

Thank you for your time.