U.S. to resume landmine production (and, presumably, landmine use)
oh, man... i just HATE to read stories like this... large areas of the world are already tattooed with unexploded landmines left over from one deadly conflict or another... afghanistan is full of 'em, vietnam is too... they're ugly, vicious, nightmarish killing devices... when i was in vietnam, they were using one device that, when detonated, sprayed tiny metal needles and razor shards for hundreds of feet in all directions, the objective being to clear the entire area, hence the name, "antipersonnel mine..." yes, just what we need more of...
"all the capabilities provided by landmines..." terrible, terrible, terrible... Submit To Propeller
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The George W. Bush administration may soon resume production of antipersonnel land mines in a move that is at odds with both the international community and previous U.S. policy on the weapons, says a leading human rights organisation.
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The U.S. has not used antipersonnel land mines since the 1991 Gulf War, when it scattered over 100,000 land mines from planes in Iraq and Kuwait...
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In 1994 the U.S. called for the ”eventual elimination” of all such mines and in 1996, Pres. Bill Clinton said the U.S. would ”seek a worldwide agreement as soon as possible to end the use of all antipersonnel mines.” The U.S. produced its last antipersonnel land mine in 1997.
It has also been the stated objective of the U.S. government that it would someday join the 145 countries party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the use, production, exporting, and stockpiling of antipersonnel land mines.
However, the Bush administration made an about-face in U.S. antipersonnel land mine policy in February 2004, when it abandoned any pretense of joining the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention.
”The United States will not join the Ottawa Convention because its terms would have required us to give up a needed military capability,” the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said in a statement in February 2004, summing up the administration's new policy.
”Landmines still have a valid and essential role protecting United States forces in military operations... No other weapon currently exists that provides all the capabilities provided by landmines.”
"all the capabilities provided by landmines..." terrible, terrible, terrible... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
8/08/2005
