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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: boris_a who wrote (125537)	3/3/2004 8:52:33 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

> "Mines used in a limited and responsible way can do more good then harm" In the case of landmines, a lot, really a lot of countries do seriously think they do more harm than good. Your statement doesn't contradict mine. 1 - A lot of countries can think anything true or now. 2 - Land mines can do more harm, even a lot more harm then good without making the statement "Mines used in a limited and responsible way can do more good then harm" false. Frankly, I have no idea what's the meaning of "scattering" ~ 120'000 landmines from an airplane in a "responsible way". A weapon so dangerous, that US commanders are reluctant to use it. To illustrate further: My understanding was that not a few soldiers are injured by friendly landmine fire. The US may have used mines in an a less then fully "safe and responsible" way in 1991. You seem to want to use that example to show that they can't be used safely and responsibly. That isn't exactly an example of solid logic. So really, how can you use such weapon in a "responsible" way? By "such a weapon" do you mean mines or the type of mines that where scattered in 1991? The topic is mines in general. You can use mines in a responsible way by using them in limited areas that have little or no civilian presence like the DMZ in Korea and keeping careful records of where the mines are planted. The scatterable mines probably aren't worth using now. They would have made sense for use against something like a massive Warsaw Pact invasion into Western Europe (despite the human costs I would have considered that a responsible use of the mines) but barring trying to stop a massive attack by very powerful forces against Americans or our allies I don't think its worth using this type of mine. Safety of US citizens is not at stake, I think. Actually it potentially is, at least US citiziens who happen to be in the military and are stationed in places like Korea. Tim