Should the U.S. ban the use of land mines?

Discussion in 'World Events' started by ISDAMan, Dec 16, 1999.

  1. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    I think the question that should be answered is has the US been irresponsible in its use of mines? Have there been any recent victims of US mines say in the last 30 years? There are none that I can remember.

    The issue should be the irresponsible use of land mines. Land mines under any circumstances should not be a threat to non combatants and that includes wildlife.
     
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  3. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Do the landmines on 16 million acres of Vietnam count?

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32236846/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
     
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  5. Killjoy Propelling The Farce!! Valued Senior Member

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    There are apparently mixed anti-tank and anti-personel minefields, and anti-personel only minefields:

    Note: NSD ATL and APL - Non Self Destruct Anti-tank Landmine and Anti-Personel Landmine
     
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  7. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Sam is (shudder!) right here: lots of abandoned US mines in Vietnam. It clearly isn't the same case as new fields in South Korea, but still a sobering reminder. The Soviets in Afghanistan have much to answer for also, as "insurgents" in Afghanistan and Iraq.
     
  8. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    All over South and Central America, mines laid by US proxy militia and US equipped armies or paramilitaries have been a problem - minor by comparison with Vietnam or Korea, but serious enough to draw serious attention. The worst affected has been Nicaragua, with maybe 30,000 of the maybe 150,000 mines laid in that country the responsibility of US-backed and supplied forces. The US origin stuff in Nicaragua has been a bigger per-unit problem than the Nicaraguan government stuff, because no records were kept of location etc - also the case in other countries, such as Honduras and El Salvador and Peru, where the nature of US involvement in conflicts was not publicly admitted or documented.

    http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth/2004/37231.htm
     
  9. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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  10. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    The US not only left behind extensive minefields, but refused to supply maps and location or deployment records, refused to supply information about the mines, and interfered with the country's importing of mine clearing equipment, for many years.

    The US also boycotted the country, at a time when the US controlled the main suppliers of prosthetic limbs and other rehabilitation stuff for mine injuries.

    Similarly regarding Nicaragua. Nicaragua was famous for a while, for inventing a cheap artificial leg it could manufacture locally that allowed near-normal walking.

    I don't know if the US is responsible for any mine-laying in Colombia these days, or if the persistent rumors about a very high rate of unexploded cluster bomblets being partly an engineered feature designed to create a deniable minefield (in Lebanon, Iraq, etc) have any truth to them, but the US has some issues here.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2009

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