U.S. No Longer Promoting Landmine Ban

[kskiska]

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28 (OneWorld) - In 1994, the United States was the first nation to call for the elimination of landmines that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world.

But that was then. Today, Washington not only stands in opposition to an international treaty that bans the use and production of antipersonnel landmines, but intends to make new ones too.

(snip)

Ironically, the United States was at the forefront of international efforts to adopt the landmine treaty in the 1990s. It had not used antipersonnel landmines since the 1991Gulf War and had not exported them to other countries since 1992.

The United States would "seek a worldwide agreement as soon as possible to end the use of antipersonnel mines," President Bill Clinton said at the start of his second term in the White House.

more…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20051228/wl_oneworld/45361248641135805398

[PDJane]

1. Canada and Britain have been trying

to get land mines banned. (One of princess Di's favourite causes, which should tell you how long this has been going on.) The US has not signed those agreements, and is, indeed, trying to ban anti-tank mines, while keeping the right to use anti-personnel mines. It's expensive to replace the hardware, I guess.

[MrPrax]

2. Good point...

It was Prince Charles that started that one, I thought.

Clinton did what Clinton had done with the 'ban on child soldiers'--thumb his nose at these international agreements, citing national security...a familiar position for American presidents to take on virtually any international agreement.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. 'Promote' not 'adopt'.

Even while we were promoting the treaty our glorious senate did not see fit to adopt it.

Here is who has signed/ratified: http://www.icbl.org/treaty/members

Here is who has not ratified and signed: http://www.icbl.org/treaty/non_sp
Of the non adopters the US is in the worst of the worst: neither a signatory nor a ratifier.

And finally, it was that paragon of liberalism Bill Clinton and his administration that attempted to dilute and obstruct, and then finally abandoned the treaty.
http://www.infact.org/cowboyd.html#anchor12

Not that the Bush Crime Family is any better, they are obviously far worse. Not only do have they refused all new international treaties - they have abandoned the ABM treaty and have ignored the geneva conventions on POWs and occupied territories, and of course they openly violated their UN charter treaty obligations by waging a war of aggression against Iraq.