The rest of the world might conclude that we Americans believe that blowing up Army trucks and tanks is bad but blowing up human beings, including thousands of children and other civilians each year, is okay.
U.S. troops in Iraq have suffered at the hands of insurgents using so-called "Improvised Explosive Devices" (essentially, home made land mines) to blow up Humvees, trucks and other military vehicles killing and wounding hundreds of U.S. soldiers. And so it's understandable that the U.S. has urged the international community to ban all sales of antitank and other heavy landmines.
But why is the U.S. is refusing to participate in an international effort to eliminate mines designed to hurt primarily people?
More than 140 nations have signed on to the accord, which bans the manufacture, sale, and use of anti-personnel mines. But the U.S. has refused to endorse the ban on landmines that kill and maim between 15,000 and 20,000 people around the world every year.
Dismissing the international effort, Deputy State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli said, "Eliminating civilian landmine casualties requires a comprehensive approach addressing landmines of every type that remain hazardous after a conflict has ended, including the larger antivehicle landmines that are not covered by the Ottawa Convention."
In an extreme example of doublespeak, Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield said that the U.S. was a "strong partner" in trying to prevent humanitarian tragedies caused by landmines, but affirmed U.S. decision to stay out of the convention because the Pentagon deems it necessary to have landmines at its disposal "either to save U.S. forces in the field or to save allied forces or to save a population that we are protecting."
And the whole world is watching.
Manila Times - U.S. won't attend international conference on land mines
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