# In defence of Russia **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 6, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166 "2022-08-06T00:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1179
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/1179 "2023-06-24T21:45:34Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > > [@Dissonance](#): > > > > The US has not signed it but has chosen to abide by and hasn’t used cluster munitions since 2004. > > It’s nice that they haven’t used them, but it would be better if they joined most of the world and signed it. I don’t disagree. I think the US should have signed Ottawa as well. > [@Atamasama](#): > > Because the thing is, they only agreed to hold off on using them until they figured out a way to make them safer. But they’ve been unable to do so, and the Pentagon decided to “allow commanders to authorize the use of the weapons when they deem it necessary”. The funny thing is the US position on both cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines has been that US munitions are ‘safer’ because they are designed to self-destruct after a specified period of time elapses. This was the position of the US with regards to AP land mines during Ottawa and why the US wouldn’t sign it, and I pointed out the large number of duds from DPICM used in Desert Storm in 1991 and [US GOA studies on them](http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat5/149647.pdf) as the problem with that position. If a munition duds, it isn’t going to self-destruct like it is supposed to, and just because it was a dud does not mean that it is remotely safe. Add to that the problem inherent in the very name of the artillery system used to deploy mines, FASCAM, Family of Scatterable Mines. One couldn’t claim to be abiding by _existing_ laws and customs on the use of land mines pre-Ottawa which required the location and positions of landmines to be recorded to aid in their future removal if they were delivered by scattering them, built in self-destruct timer or not. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166)._