new info on Obama and land mines

[ensho]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

The Auld Triangle Goes Jingle Jangle


-snip-

Such decisions are coming thick and fast. Right before Thanksgiving came news that the Obama administration has decided not to sign an international convention banning land mines which now has support from more than 150 countries. Yes, there was a land-mine policy “review” by the Administration, now denounced by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy as "cursory and halfhearted.” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told the press last Tuesday that US defense requirements really require landmines and Obama is going to stay with the Bush policy, though – here’s the Obamian compromise – the US government is, for the first time, sending an official observer to a session of the International Convention, meeting this very weekend in Cartagena, Colombia. This will come as a great comfort to the relatives of those thousands – half of them children -- blown to bits each year by landmines littering war-torn landscapes across the globe.
-snip-
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maybe we CAN change his mind, or not. the pentagon barons are mean bastards.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[msongs]

2. gee if american soldiers weren't going where they don't belong..... nt

[TheWraith]

3. Again--the reason we're not giving up landmines is Korea.

There's a field of 1 million plus landmines sitting in the DMZ for the specific purpose of slowing down North Korea's 2 million man army if they ever decided to march on South Korea, to delay them long enough to mount a better defense.

The US would be happy to sign this if they would give us an exemption for the currently deployed minefield in Korea. They won't. So we don't sign it, which was originally a Clinton policy, not a Bush one. It hasn't stopped all those other countries from signing on, nor has it stopped the treaty from being effective.

[Kaleva]

4. There is a difference between non-persistent and persistent mines

The persistent mines, the ones causing the havoc, haven't been manufactured, exported or used by the US since the 90's.

[cowcommander]

5. So who's really in charge then - Obama or the Pentagon?