America plans landmine agreement

London Telegraph ^ | February 27, 2004 | London Telegraph

[ejdrapes]

America plans landmine agreement

President George W Bush has agreed to a complete ban of certain landmines after 2010, but will allow the US military to use more sophisticated mines after that date.

The plan abandons the complete ban on landmines that had been proposed by former President Bill Clinton.

The new policy will allow the use of "smart" landmines which have timing devices to automatically defuse the explosives and pose little threat to civilians.

The ban will apply only to those "dumb" mines which have no self-destruct features and can remain hidden long after conflicts have been resolved.

A senior state department official has said that the new policy strikes a balance between the Pentagon's desire to retain effective weapons and humanitarian concerns about civilian casualties.

The plans also include a 50 per cent increase in spending on a state department program that provides landmine removal assistance in more than 40 countries.

[maestro]

Finally,......'WMD'.....found.

/sarcsam

[ScudEast]

Good for George. Like many in the UK I was suspicious of him when he started out (the rhetoric of his administration is a little alien to us this side of the pond) but as time has gone on I have come to like the fella more and more. Humanitarian but sensible at the same time, let's hope he gets another term.

[Wumpus Hunter]

Here's a fact - WE aren't the ones who are leaving mines scattered around, it's the bad guys.

Instead of using cheap claymores to protect our troops, we gotta spend much more on "smart" mines. The bad guys will do the same now too, huh?

The folks who whine about this should have THEIR asses stuck in a foxhole, and be told "Oh no, you can't have any mines to protect your flanks, that wouldn't be humanitarian."

Put a rat in office, cut the defense budget, and this REALLY sucks. We are screwing ourselves and denying our troops a means of defending themselves. What total bull shit!

[Sci Fi Guy]

Good for George. Like many in the UK I was suspicious of him when he started out (the rhetoric of his administration is a little alien to us this side of the pond) but as time has gone on I have come to like the fella more and more. Humanitarian but sensible at the same time, let's hope he gets another term.

Dude, George just agreed to do nothing. The US had been using smart landmines for years. They require batteries to be armed/dangerous. When the battery runs down they are completely safe.

[ScudEast]

I always thought of the USA as being the "good guys" who will bend over backwards to avoid killing anyone they don't have to providing it doesn't leave their own troops vulnarable. Looks like GW does too, thank god, even if you don't. I don't think GW is the sort of chap to leave his troops without the weapons they need just to satisfy peaceniks though as demonstrated by his rejection of the original landmine treaty so I think you may be overreacting.

[ScudEast]

Dude, George just agreed to do nothing. The US had been using smart landmines for years.

Sorry, I didn't know that, I was just reacting to the article. If the US uses only smart land mines then what is this article about?

[Wumpus Hunter]

Now instead of cheap $20 claymores, we have to use expensive smart mines that will probably cost 10 grand or more.

How many of the smart mines do you think our troops will get the next time we have a rat bastard in the oval office?

And all of our enemies won't use the old conventional mines either, will they?

I'll bet they are destroying them as we speak, since they are now illegal.

Get a clue - this is stupid AND bad!

[Wumpus Hunter]

Have you seen the next generation of mines? There was a thread a while back about it. They can move themselves great distances, and even conceal their own tracks.

This thing Bush signed is still bogus though, because it's taking the claymores away from our grunts on the line. He should have told the rest of the world to kiss our asses.

This will be like pollution standards - we'll be the only ones that are held to the rule, and it'll cost us more money to abide by the aggreement.

[JimRed]

Can we dispose of the old ones on our borders?

[ScudEast]

Have you seen the next generation of mines? There was a thread a while back about it. They can move themselves great distances, and even conceal their own tracks.

No, I think I missed that one - I'll have a search for it, sounds interesting, thanks.

This thing Bush signed is still bogus though, because it's taking the claymores away from our grunts on the line. He should have told the rest of the world to kiss our asses.

I guess he must have something in mind, he doesn't seem to have done much in the way of kow-towing to international demands that the USA work against it's own interests so far (and no bad thing may I add - I wish our PM would stand up for us like your pres stands up for you). Maybe if the US leads the world in developing these "smart mines" they'll be able to persuade those countries who have banned anti-personnel mines to buy shiny next-generation American ones instead :) Having said that, I expect the US military picks up most of it's mines, smart or othewise, after itself anyway?

I agree about the pollution standards by the way, I'm pretty sure that your industry is cleaner than the places all our industry went to when our govenment killed it with regulations.