John Kerry

karynnj

(59,942 posts) Mon Dec 8, 2014, 02:07 PM Dec 2014

Kerry oped: Clear land mines off the earth.

This is a complex issue where the US is behind much of the world because it is seen that the current use of land mines at the NK and SK border serves a purpose. Kerry's oped speaks of working to clear the area and the Obama administration not procuring additional land mines.

The oped was in conjunction with releasing a report which describes the progress that has been made - and the US contributions to it - over the last several decades spending more than $2.3 million. Link to report - http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth/2014/index.htm

In the oped, Kerry says:

Land mines and other unexploded ordnance continue to endanger civilians in more than 60 countries. Decades after soldiers have laid down their weapons and leaders have made peace, these grim legacies of war kill and maim local populations.

For more than two decades, the United States has been at the forefront of international efforts to remove these deadly devices and to address the humanitarian effects that these weapons can have on civilian populations.
<snip>

In 1994, President Clinton pledged that we would work toward the eventual elimination of antipersonnel land mines. President George W. Bush restricted the use of land mines to only those with self-destruct or self-deactivation features. In September, President Obama brought us one step closer to the goal of a world free from anti-personnel land mines when he announced that we will no longer use them outside of the unique circumstances of the Korean Peninsula.
<snip>

That means the U.S. will no longer procure anti-personnel land mines, and we will begin destroying our anti-personnel land mine stockpiles not required for the defense of South Korea. And we will work to find ways that may ultimately allow us to accede to the Ottawa Convention — the international treaty that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel land mines.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/08/john-kerry-land-mines-report-earth-column/20059345/