U.S. to no longer produce anti-personnel landmines
Source: Reuters
The United States announced on Friday that it will no longer produce or seek to acquire anti-personnel landmines, deadly weapons that the United Nations says results in many civilian casualties.
A White House statement said the United States will not seek to replace expiring stockpiles of landmines. The announcement was made in Maputo, Mozambique, by the U.S. delegation attending a conference to review compliance with the Ottawa Convention, a global Mine Ban Treaty which became international law in 1999.
...
The White House said the United States is pursuing solutions that would ultimately allow the United States to accede to the Ottawa Convention.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/27/uk-usa-landmines-obama-idUKKBN0F218220140627
That's a bit of good news. About time the US signed the treaty.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)IronLionZion
(45,426 posts)I thought this was done long ago.
Tetris_Iguana
(501 posts)Not overly surprising though, when considering our state of constant war.
bhikkhu
(10,715 posts)if I had any hopes, after so much US disinterest in the whole tragic subject. Good and surprising news!
mahannah
(893 posts)mopinko
(70,077 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)tclambert
(11,085 posts)I bet Dick Cheney wouldn't have banned landmines. I bet he'd have approved ones designed to look like toys. Because America needs to prove how tough we are. And freedom!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They get a real thrill over the thought of a pregnant woman from Mexico getting turned into red mist.
progressoid
(49,978 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)... to build devices to train rats to detect landmines and mark them for removal by EOD personnel.
mopinko
(70,077 posts)good to see them put to good use.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)Why does it take so long for US to act..... while we are it, get rid of the stock pile we have.
Orrex
(63,200 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,306 posts)Big_Mike
(509 posts)That honor belongs to the Italians. They are the top producers and the Russians are a close second.
I am deeply conflicted about this.
On one hand, you get places like Bosnia and Afganistan where millions were emplaced and forgotten about. Then you have idiots like Noriega who placed minefields in sandy beaches where the mines be moved easily due to tides and such, and are not to be found when you try to remove them.
On the other, I see places like the DMZ in Korea, where all that keeps the anti-tank mines emplaced from being removed simply by walking by is the presence and threat of anti-personnel mines. The anti-personnel mines are there to protect the troops by slowing the enemy advance and giving them time to bring all the defenses on line. This is at its base a troop protection measure. Minefields such as these are recorded and the records verified every so often (not a well liked job!). We no longer train to emplace the old style minefields, but the records of those emplaced over the years remain.
Uncle Joe
(58,349 posts)Thanks for the thread, muriel_volestrangler.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)joanbarnes
(1,722 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)Seems like the announcement doesn't really change anything. I suspect that the military has decided that there is simply no military need to produce more because their present stock of mines is adequate.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Soylent Brice
(8,308 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)Thanks to Obama or whoever deserves it, these things seriously suck.
LTG
(215 posts)But I wonder if the Senate will ever ratify it. A number of treaties over the years have been signed by Presidents, but never ratified.
As an aside, back in the 90's my brother was asked to create and oversee a prosthetics clinic in Hanoi. He managed to get an export license for Apple Macs to run scanners, and design and produce parts by CADCAM. It was able to produce limbs faster, better fitting and from higher tech materials than many thought wise. But they survive much better in rice paddies and difficult environments.
It was bankrolled by a charity that was initially started by an eastern Washington pototato farmer who had lost a limb as a pilot during the Vietnam Nam War.
For a number of years he was sent by the government to land mine hotspots to teach surgeons how to best do amputations to maximize use of prosthetics. All the tourists attractions of the world, Laos, Cambodia, Kosovo, El Salvador and others. The main purpose of his research at the time was for the VA.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)emsimon33
(3,128 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Full story:
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20140627/NEWS/306270094/New-landmine-policy-will-not-affect-Korea-s-DMZ
Here is an old article from Men's Journal on the wildlife in the DMZ, pretty amazing:
http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-korean-demilitarized-zone-is-the-worlds-wildest-border-20131205
jmowreader
(50,553 posts)Among the things not banned by this treaty are "anti-handling devices" and "mixed mines." I wonder...could the people who constructed the treaty, knowing mines are one of the few things that keep the North Korean People's Army inside North Korea, have stuck weasel terms in there to allow the UN to maintain minefields inside the DMZ?
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I'm not an expert on that. I've been up there and seen it first hand. Scary shit. My house is 26 km south of the border.
jmowreader
(50,553 posts)You're not kidding: VERY scary shit.
TheKentuckian
(25,023 posts)jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)Those things linger long after the conflict is over and end up hurting a lot of civilians. Plus we have much more accurate weapons to replace it.