Here's the link to the article. (there's a link to the video of the comerical in the article)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7351263/

Personally, I think they should run it. Americans need a wake up call. We wouldn't stand for it if it was on our soil, yet we bury our head in the sand and ignore the problem in other countries.

 

LMAO I saw that a while ago and seriously fell off my chair I was laughing so hard laugh.gif

 

Wouldn't stand for what? Landmines?

Silly shit.

The reason they are such a problem in other countries is because they don't track where they are placed, or when a Terrorist puts a anti tank mine in the dirt somewhere, they don't keep records of them like we do.

In Korea, over 1,000,000 land mines have helped keep the peace and keep the N. Koreans from running over the border for 50 years now.

Sorry.

Responsibility for mines is the issue. That's why the US never signed that Anti Landmine agreement with some of the rest of the world. We track and keep meticulous maps of our landmines. For scatterable land mine systems, they auto destruct after a pre set amount of time.

Blame the Ruskies. They dropped millions of mines all over Afganistan and didn't keep track of where or have a system to destroy them after a set time. Same in Iraq. It's not OUR mines that are the problem. Hell, in Korea, you should see the minefields up north. They are clearly marked with all sorts of stuff. And that's fine. If they do nothing else, theywill help channel the armored forces from N. Korea into pre designated firing zones, or kill sacks. Our engineers go out and check sections of the minefields regularly.

It's the guys that go toss them out in someone's garden in Zimbabwe that cause this "uproar". Yes, it's sad, but it's not the US.

 

Random's point still stands. Not that it is the US's fault that their are land mines elsewhere, but that the US knows about unaccounted-for land mines and has the capabilities to do something about it, but does not. Commercials like this will raise interest...................and make a few kids scream and quit the soccer team.... tongue.gif

 

Why should the US pay for all the world problems. They need to figure it out and pay for it (tho we do fund most of UN operations). Landmines are a great weapon if used right.

 

Well, then you have a few problems.

1. Who pays for it? Everyone in the US is screaming for us to come back here and not touch the rest of the world anymore.

2. This will further our "World Policing". We do enough.

3. Why are we being pressured and not the folks that the mines belong to?

4. We DO a LOT for landmines. Check out Afganistan. We've been helping clear something on the order of 2 Square Miles a week there of landmines and UXO's (Unexploded Ordinance). Over 95% of it isn't ours. I have a bastard uncle that is retired from the US Navy and is heading a program here in ABQ for the past several years that concentrates on mine clearing. We are one of 4 countries currently improving their mine clearing equipment. Everyone else just shovels it out of the way.

5. Whos' going to do it? DO you know that one of the jobs in the US Army that is hurting the WORST for personnel is Explosive Technicians? They have been for years. Fact is it's a DANGEROUS job, and most folks don't want to do it.

 

They could have gotten their point across a little lighter than that. Although it is reality who wants to see a little girl get blown up when you're sitting there watching the saturday afternoon movie with your kids?

Actually I was watching discovery channel and they had a machine on there that could go through an entire mine field in a matter of hours. It had XX,000 chains with 15lb weights on it. That thing just spun until it hit a mine and blew it up. Best part was it never stopped, there was a shield to deflect debris and shockwaves, it was awesome. I think Austrailia was making them.

 

So are thermonuclear wepons...Let's not rush out and use those either...

RedZman....
1. We're still doing the world's police/dirty work. Who is "everyone"? No one calling their congressmen or Senators. You don't hear them discussing withdrawing from the worlds hot spots up on Capitol Hill. You and the the pickle in your pocket makes 2? Hardly everyone.

2. Removal of landmines is NOT "police work". It's called SERVICE WORK or HUMANITARIAN work. The US needs the image improvment after kicking Iraq's ass for non-existant WOMD's. (i.e. No damn reason other than we wanted to)

3. Because land mines don't have "owners" once they are placed, only victims. Ever seen the lawsuits that have been tried in the world court? Landmines cannot be proven to be "owned" once placed, thus no one country is held responsble for their "results". It's been tried many times.

4. See, we do it already...must not be that bad/objectionable.

5. How about paying folks a resonable wage to do it? I sure wouldn't want to do it for the piddly sum the Armed Forces pays their technical people.

Take a look at this, and you'll see how large the problem is.



For more info go to http://www.icbl.org/

You might want to read up on the problem.



If 15,000 to 20,00 us citizens were being killed a year, we would do something to stop it. Because it happens in another country, to people we don't know, we don't care? We stop wars. We stop plauges. We aid natural disasters (Flood, Hurricane, Tsunami)...but you expect us to just IGNORE landmines? For god's sake WHY?

 

The US has them, and has used them since WWII. I'm talking about some HIGH tech shizzle.



Oh yeah, I know we are, and we will continue. Can't stop saving the world when it needs it the most can we? LOL The "Everyone" I'm talking about are the groups out there that go nuts that we haven't signed on the Anti Landmine bill that dozens of other countries have. The "Everyone" I'm referring to are Joe "Kerry" supporters that want to have peace but not pay the price for it. Guess I just see too many of the protests and stuff from the potheads here. I was refering to ALL the folks that do make a stink about it.



If they aren't ours, it's not our responsibility. If those countries want to clear them, let's train THEIR folks to do it and donate the mine threshers to do it for them.



Maybe in California, in the Military it's called "cleaning up some other lazy bastards mess." Hell, in 20 to 30 more years they'll all be found the hard way.



Now now, let's not go off on this again Tony. There were plenty of WMD's. I've still got the links to the shells filled with Sarin found by troops over there. Again, it's not like you need to keep tons of the stuff on hand when you can make METRIC tons of it in a day. Even if intel was wrong and there wasn't as much as there was thought to be, the THREAT of it was enough, and so was taking that idiot out of power.



Not true at all. I've gone out and placed landmines. Then gone and recovered that mine. It is MY mine. I keep the records and the map with the coordinates or sketch of where the mines are. If it doesn't get recovered, no one comes near that point until it is found and disarmed or exploded by other means. Even when it does, it's MY ass.



I belive it. With the hundreds of different models and hundreds of different countries using them, it's hard to prove whom they belong to. The US uses specific types though. And every US weapon, mine, gun, vehicle, and almost everything else has a serial #. You can track down what unit was issued it, what person signed for it, all of that. Again, the problem is the other countries.

Now remember, I was thinking this was leaning towards the US pulling out of Mine Usage, as I couldn't watch the video at school. Belive me, I know it's a horrible problem, I've known folks that have been hurt and killed by the mines left in Bosnia/Croatia and Afganistan. Yes, I do belive we should help, but we ARE helping.



It's not. I thought this was about quitting our usage of Mines. Mine cleanup is a big issue, and yes, needs to be dealt with fully. But the countries involved need to show an active interest and put money into it, and their people.



Fully agree my mang.



Yes, we would, because that's the way our country works. But what about the others? Shouldn't THEY be the ones doing the work and us helping? It's not that way unfortuantely.



We all know the reasons for this. 1 death here or there is ignored. Hell, a dozen landmine deaths a day can be ignored if they are from different areas. 1,000 to 200,000 folks dying in a month is a different story. World opinion dictates that everyone will do something about it.

 

Looking at that map, most of Europe has signed. And so has Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. None of them are now the line mine police for other countries. Am I right?