Sara Jacobs: “I thank Congressman Gaetz for his partnership on this important issue. Many of us have this idea of American…”

“I thank Congressman Gaetz for his partnership on this important issue. Many of us have this idea of American exceptionalism--that America is set apart from the rest of the world. Well, that is certainly true when it comes to cluster munitions and not in the way that we want. America is an outlier. We are one of the few countries that hasn't become party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and that is a grave mistake. These weapons maim and kill indiscriminately. In 2021, the Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor found that over 97 percent of casualties from cluster bomb remnants were civilians; and two-thirds of those were children. That is because these bomblets are small, colorful, and interesting shapes, so to children they look like toys. So when kids find these unexploded bomblets stuck in trees or in the water or simply on the ground and try to pick them up and play with them, they can lose a limb or their life in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, there is no amount of guardrails or promised precautions for cluster munitions that are enough. These weapons are unpredictable, and the human cost is far too high to justify. Now, let's be clear. This isn't about one country. This is not about Ukraine. This is about protecting civilian lives and ensuring our national security all over the world because sending these weapons anywhere makes us complicit in unavoidable civilian harm and creates blowback that undermines our national security.…”