Paul Jefferson, an early humanitarian deminer once said: “a landmine is the perfect soldier: Ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses” (Khamis par. 1). Jefferson’s quote can be interpreted in two ways: that a landmine is a great weapon and all countries should use it, or that a landmine is too dangerous for one’s own good. For years, landmines have been affordable, yet dangerous killers that countries use to defend their borders in war. But as wars end, countries often forget about their rural parts and the destruction left from war, leaving citizens in the danger from landmines. The immoral and unethical use of landmines in West Africa will continue to create an impoverished and uneconomic society for thousands of innocent people due to …show more content…
The price to receive and plant landmines makes them the perfect weapon: cheap, successful, and accurate. The cost for just one landmine is between $3 and $30, making landmines extremely attractive in the eyes of a struggling military. A cheap, temporary fix that will explode anyone who crosses through one’s land, which seems like the perfect weapon, but it is quite the opposite. The cost to diffuse just one landmine ranges between $300 and $1000, where at minimum the government is losing almost ten thousand percent of what they spent for the landmine (Khamis par. 3). In Song for Night, My Luck, a child soldier who diffuses mines, describes how his job “requires [him] to concentrate on every second of [his] life as though it were the last” (Abani 11). My Luck explains the rigor and danger of defusing a landmine, and supports how the cost should be so high because people’s lives are constantly at risk. Most people would not want to put their life at risk to defuse a landmine, but it needs to be done, so governments are willing to pay, creating a huge increase from the price of planting to the price of removal for landmines. The current cost to remove all landmines across the world would be fifty to one hundred billion dollars, which puts a heavy weight on the economy for many …show more content…
Landmines are planted in countries like Nigeria during civil wars by militant groups, but they are undocumented and the government does not know where militant groups put them. In 2009, Nigeria’s Article 7 report stated that there were suspected mined areas in the “war-affected areas in the Eastern part of Nigeria” that might be contaminated with “Biafran ‘locally fabricated’ explosive devices (International campaign, par. 14). The lasting effects of landmines from the Biafran civil still cost the government due to the undocumentation and danger of militant landmines. As time continues, governments work to rebuild rural areas affected by landmines. Countries for decades after a war ends still spend billions in cleaning up a mess. In an article from the Nigerian Daily Times:
The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Court on Monday ordered the Federal Government to pay some communities in 10 states where land mines were laid during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war the sum of N50 billion as compensation. The Community Court also ordered the Federal Government to pay another sum of N38 billion to RSB Holdings Nigeria Limited and Deminers Concept Nigeria Limited to clear the abandoned bombs. (Daily Times, par.
Most famously used in the incineration of 64 Japanese cities in the1940’s, napalm scorched more to death than in the atomic explosions in Nagasaki and Hiroshima (Bernard). Many still pose the question, why napalm instead of atomic weapons? During the destruction of the Japanese landscape, each atomic detonation had a price tag of $13.5 billion while each napalm destruction was only a slim $83,000 per metropolis (Norris). Most recently, during the siege of Aleppo, the Russian and Syrian governments alike, have been accused of using these incendiary bombs in the rebel occupied area. During this siege, when civilians “see barrels falling from the sky they hope they are explosives and not napalm”
There are numerous organizations and charities that are overlooked by the public since they are not as well known, but when many innocent civilians are losing their lives due to past horrific events, that is when action should be taking place. The author of “First they Killed my Father”, Loung Ung, is partnered up with the organization, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, (ICBL), so that countries like Cambodia are able to discard dangerous landmines that are hidden beneath the country’s soil. Not to mention, this f0undation won the
Massoud Hassani needs to clear the universe of landmines. He says that ten individuals are murdered or damaged via landmines day by day. Regular citizens, military faculty, and helpful laborers are casualties in more than sixty nations around the globe. Hassani's answer is the Mine Kafon Drone, an airborne framework intended to identify and explode landmines securely.
On June 2010 Bart Weetjens shared with his audience how he trains rats to sniff out land mines. Land mines still exists in 70 developing countries today. Land mines do tremendous harm to the people of these countries because they are denied access to their homes. It could also so cause serious bodily harm as well as psychological duress, and even worse, death. No one knows exactly hominy land mines still exists in the world, but what we do know is that they are killing innocent civilians. Weediness passion for rodent’s and his native sub-Sahara African people led him on a journey to teach rats how to sniff out land mines. The same passion is also put toward sniffing out Tuberculosis.
This leads to the commercial sold flamethrower, no purpose of land development or keeping the environment healthy, just people abusing our second amendment right. One of these flamethrowers is called the XM42-M. This is a handheld flamethrower that is able to shoot up to 15-20 feet and can be fired for up to 3 minutes. All for the great price of thousand dollars, plus shipping and handling. Just to think that the length that the flame are being thrown are close to the actual weapons used in the wars. Commercial sold flamethrower are able to be sold in Forty-Eight states.
As current problems of terrorism and the war on Iraq, chemical, biological and nuclear warfare (CBW) issues are important and relevant. CBW agents are dangerous, uncontrollable and undifferentiating weapons of mass destructions. Chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are capable of mass destruction aimed at killing masses of people. Using CBW agents comes with many ethical dilemmas and consequential side-effects. Chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons are designed to yield a great number of deaths. Regarding the ethical use of CBW, while looking at the larger context of war, one must determine the value of life. As backed by Virtues Ethics, this mass
We began the drive early in the morning. Our movement was again, very slow and deliberate. Not knowing was the status of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) was in the area we took our time. The sun had risen and we were still about one and a half kilometers away from the village when the lead vehicle’s mine roller had hit an IED. There was minimal damage, but enough to halt our movement and discourage us. We dismounted the trucks, and began moving through surrounding neighborhoods and away from the main roads to get to the village. The drivers, gunners and truck commanders stayed with the vehicles, and crept up to us as we looked for potential triggermen.
The issues regarding the arms trade discussed in Sowing Weapons of War include the free market in arms, moral responsibility, policies for curbing the trade, and the banning of landmines. Regarding the free market in arms, the Unites States’ activity in the trade has increased dramatically since the Cold War and this increase has led to an increase in lives lost in third world countries due to violence. As a supplier of war weapons, the United States has a moral responsibility to ensure that they follow the process for a legitimate trade. The trade is legitimate if it promotes legitimate defense or follows the principle of sufficiency. However, even though there are instances where the trade can be justified, measures should be taken to curb the trade. Strict controls in the United States as well as internationally can curb the trade; as well as finding nonmilitary ways to protect jobs. Landmines claim the lives of civilians every week; measures need to be take internationally to reduce the number of landmines hidden across the world. In conclusion, weapons of war take the lives of several people everyday, but it does not have to remain this way as there are many steps that the country and the world can take to put an end to the illegitimate
“Responding to landmines” speech by Princess Diana discusses a critical topic about landmines dangers and raises an awareness to everyone listening to the speech to acknowledge and recognize the causes, the consequences, and the recommended solutions of landmines terrible problem. Diana’s speech encompasses a wide collection of linguistic and stylistic devices that definitely support her message to the audience. The use of facts, statistical evidences, call to actions, rhetorical devices, definite themes, repetition of phrases, personal pronouns, consistency in structure are all included in this speech about the problem of landmines, which makes it very rich and strong in view of delivering the right awareness in the right way and
Moreover, there is another document, the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War, according to which its member states are committed to clear up the attacked territory after the end of a conflict. Many countries that did not sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, such as the United States, signed the Protocol. Therefore, these countries are committed to eliminate the suffering caused by unexploded cluster munitions in attacked territories.
In today’s world as an American soldier there are an untold amount of things that may be perceived as a threat. During the United States war on global terrorism these threats have migrated away from the common enemy holding a gun, grenade, or rocket in which the soldier would be accustomed to seeing. Instead what has turned into a common occurrence in conflict is the use of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). These lethal weapons commonly crafted out of tools and objects that are usually found within an ordinary home. Large tin coffee cans packed with explosives within its bottom, filled to the top with sharp and small objects ranging from separated scissors to nuts and bolts to act as shrapnel bombs. These would be set aside a dirt road adjacent to a pile of trash with a triggering mechanism either timed, remote detonation or a pressure trigger by wire in order to set off around unsuspecting soldiers who may be within a convoy or patrolling around the outskirts of a village. This example is one of many in which the threat that the soldier must recognize is one that is much more difficult to see, making it a prime method for terrorists to use in their efforts.
This is to stop people from country-crossing. It is very unfair because already so many people have lost limbs or even have died because of these evil landmines. What’s really bad is the fact that countries like America, the United Kingdom, and other various countries provided landmines for Cambodia.
a) The year before she died, the Princess actively campaigned to end the creation and distribution of land mines. (Diana Princess of Wales: Charities and patronage. 2009). The International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize only a few months after her death.
There are many barriers that prevent the clearing of landmines around the world, specifically, Africa. One of these barriers is the fact that landmines are so efficient. If they weren't so effective of as a weapon of murder, millions would not be buried into the ground today. Another major barrier is the fact that removal of landmines is labor entensive, as well as, inefficiant. In fact, it takes more than a day to clear over 50 kilometers of land. At that rate, it is estimated it will take over one thousand years to clear the rest of the mines left in the world. Also, landmines are now made out of plastic, therefore invisible to metal detectors which makes removal that much more difficult. Another
The African continent has been, and continues to be engulfed in one conflict after another. Over the last 40 years, nearly 20 African countries, or about 40% of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), have experienced at least one period of civil war (Elbadawi & Sambanis, 2000). They further estimate that 20% of SSA's