111 Nations Adopt Cluster Bomb Ban

I. 111 Nations Adopt Cluster Bomb Ban, Jpost.com, May 30, 2008, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212041434978&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

II. On Friday a 12 day negotiation was finished in Ireland regarding the ban of Cluster Bombs. 111 Nations were in attendance and all officially banned the bombs in their nations. The signatories are required to stop production of cluster bombs, and to destroy any remaining bombs within the next eight years, and to fund projects to repair old-battlefields that were scared by cluster bomb duds. The supporting nations are planning sign the treaty in Norwegian capital Oslo in December. It would come into force in mid-2009. There were several large nations that didn't attend including, Israel, Russia, and the United States. These nations did not attend due to their opposition to the treaty. This shows that these nations have power and are afraid to give it up. Jerusalem said that Israel did not to attend because "it has to deal with well-known security threats and is opposed to a comprehensive ban on cluster bombs." Israel is widely criticized for their use of these bombs after the Second Lebanon War, where 40 innocent Lebanese were killed, including children, by the cluster-bombs. It remains unclear if these nations are ever going to give up these destructive weapons.

III. A) This issue relates to the AP World History theme of Impact of interaction among and within major societies. This article relates to this theme because the nations that were involved in this treaty were all in agreement, when the opposing nations were completely against this ban, this may cause some conflict in the future.
B) Cluster-bombs were developed in Germany during the Second World War and was named the German SD-2. As the bomb nears the ground it separates into many smaller bombs and blows up in all different areas around the main target zone.
C) The author of this article is a Jewish writer who is an insider on Israels situation. She knows exactly what is happening in her nation.
D) The author could be leaning toward Israels side like they are the correct ones. She defends her nation by giving quotes of their reasons for keeping the bombs.
E) The point of view of the other 2 nations was missing. I want to know why the U.S and Russia were not present. Although they oppose this act I feel they should have still been present at the meeting to express their opinions.
F) I feel like the 111 nations that accepted this treaty were taking a huge step towards more peace in this world. If there was less availability of weapons terrorism rates would steadily drop. I feel like it is very wrong for Israel, Russia, and the U.S to deny this. These countries push anti-terrorism so much, but when it comes to make an act that would drastically affect terrorism they do not take action. I feel like these nations need to step up for what they are doing.