WAR: U.S.: First Major Power to Stop Using Landmines

The American Forces Press Service in Washington DC on Friday, February 27th, 2004 revealed plans for the US military to eliminated use of landmines by 2010.
Lincoln Bloomfield, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs said that the United States will become "the first major military power to adopt a policy ending use of all persistent landmines and maintaining the international standard of detect ability for landmines of any kind..."

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American military de-miners, as well as those from other nations, Bloomfield said, already are involved in marking, monitoring and clearing live minefields left at the end of hostilities in at least 40 countries.

Each year thousands of people fall victim to live landmines buried around the world, Bloomfield said. U.S. forces, he pointed out, didn't leave those mines behind -- except for the potential exception of landmines remaining after the Vietnam conflict from three decades ago.

"The worldwide humanitarian (landmine) crisis is very much the product of persistent landmines used by other militaries or non-state actors who did not observe the international conventions relating to the use of these munitions," Bloomfield said.

Future American military use of landmines engineered to self-deactivate after a specific period of time should save civilian lives without taking away a key defensive weapon, he noted.

Bloomfield said the new policy doesn't impact on old-style contact landmines used on the Korean Peninsula to deter possible North Korean aggression against South Korea.

Joseph Collins, deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability operations, also at the briefing, said the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the military services were involved participants in the development of the new landmine policy.

The new policy requires DoD to develop and use more sophisticated, civilian- friendly landmines in the future, Collins said, noting that landmines would remain an important component of the U.S. military's weapons inventory.

Landmines are employed as force-multipliers, Collins explained, "allowing us to fight and win with fewer forces ? against numerically superior opponents," while protecting American troops.


This is really a big announcement that probably won't get the international recognition it deserves... on the otherhand, one has to wonder why 2010 and not now?


[Edited on 28-2-2004 by Zion Mainframe]

[Edited on 16-3-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

At least it is a step in the right direction......

Wasn't that what Princess Diana was pressing for ? ... well, it took long enough, but its a start.

Hmm, reading the document carefully I can see how the military will work DARPA's creepy "Self Healing" minefields into the overall plan. No dumb antipersonnel landmines would be required to protect a smart antitank minefield.
Self-Repairing Minefield

The reason, I think, that the U.S. goverment will abandon conventional landmines and act like they care, is that we reached the point that their weapontech. industries are far enough ahead to come up with substitutes.

Of course now the U.S. will have a new reason to bully other countries once they are the first major power to have such a "great" policy.

I do codemn the use of landmines in general and this is a good step, but it was made for the wrong reasons.

See an example at Metal Storm:
QUOTE:
"Area Denial Weapons System
With the world-wide humanitarian concern for minefield use and operation, evidenced by 138 countries signing the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines, Metal Storm technology represents a viable alternative as an area denial weapon system without leaving a silent threat for civilians after the conflict is over."

3rd movie

www.metalstorm.com...

(look at the setting of this movie it somehow made me sick)



[Edited on 28-2-2004 by Hoaks]

It makes you think what they might have in development to fill the gap that the elimination of the old mines leave....??

It doesnt matter if they stop using them, the US has to stop making them and selling them to countries that do use them.

I don't know about the first major power to stop using land mines.....

The whole of NATO, except for Turkey and the US, banned the use of land mines way back in 1997. 137 countries signed up to the International Land Mine Treaty when the treaty was first written and 150 had signed up to the present day.

www.icbl.org...

The US was long overdue in coming forward and putting it's name down.

Better late than never.....

Originally posted by intelgurl
This is really a big announcement that probably won't get the international recognition it deserves... on the otherhand, one has to wonder why 2010 and not now?

Oh, but it has! If you'll check out aljazeera today, you'll find a big article on how us evil, evil Americans are continuing the use of such deplorable things as landmines. Granted, I expect no less from this source, but I find the difference of spin on the same story amusing. It's no wonder half the world hates us, when the only news they have access to is this slanted.

"The US announced on 27 February that it would continue to use some land mines indefinitely and would not sign an international treaty outlawing the weapons, reversing the position of the previous administration."

That sounds a little different from what was said in janes.

Same issue, different stories? Or is the DoD just saying some land mines are ok and others are not?

Maybe I'm just looking at this all wrong, but something don't isn't right. Do we have the whole story, putting these two together I am wondering.

We're going to stop using 'stupid' landmines. We've developed a better system that allows temporary mining of an area for military purposes that won't leave mines for people to pop a leg on 100 years from now. A good thing, IMO.

There are, unfortunately, some places where persistent lane mines make alot of military sense.

The North/South Korean border is a good example. The Guantanamo Naval base is another.....

Any place where you could get overrun without warning....

Wow what a totally misleading title.

FIRST MAJOR POWER to stop using landmines?

Try ONLY MAJOR POWER still using landmines.

In 1997 the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Mine Ban Treaty) was signed by 141 States. To date the ONLY countries that are NOT signatories are as follows:

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Estonia
Finland
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Russia
USA
Uzbekistan

So it's been a long time coming for the US but not for the rest of the world.

yeesh

j