The world outlawed land mines in 1997, but Trump wants to start using them again!

Throughout a number of countries where the U.S. (and a few other nations) conducted brutal wars, the U.S. (and a few other nations) saturated the area with land mines. They never removed them after those wars ended. For years – and decades – after those wars ended, a child playing outside might step on one and be killed or have a leg blown off, or a farmer tilling land or herding farm animals might step on one and be killed or have a leg blown off.

In 1997 the world OUTLAWED land mines. And while the U.S. did NOT sign onto that treaty, the U.S. DID stop manufacturing and exporting landmines. In 2011 the U.S. also agreed to start destroying stockpiles of MILLIONS of landmines. And then in 2014, President Obama restricted deploying landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula but Obama DID ALLOW landmines on the Korean Peninsula.

Now in February 2020 Trump wants to start using them again in violation of overwhelming international public opinion and the 1997 treaty.

Several reputable, principled peace organizations are outraged.

The highly respected Quaker-based lobby, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL, www.fcnl.org) reported that on January 31, 2020, the White House announced a new policy lifting prohibitions on the use of landmines.  FCNL strongly condemns this decision and urges decent people to speak out, write letters to local newspaper editors, and urge Congress to take immediate action to reverse this disastrous policy.

Please click this link — https://act.winwithoutwar.org/act/tell-congress-ban-landmine-use?source=em20200222&t=7&akid=6083%2E372126%2EIxBumE — to tell Congress to prevent Trump from ending existing U.S. prohibitions against the use of landmines and using them again with horrible cruelty to many innocent adults and children.

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org