XPost: soc.veterans, uk.politics.misc, alt.military   
   XPost: alt.fan.adolf-hitler   
   From: billzzstring@starband.net   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:opah55hilprg4547r1878ej5lp4mkj3rrj@4ax.com...   
   > On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:04:56 -0700 (PDT), Honest Aryan   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >>   If land mines hadn't been banned among civlilising nations   
   >>the Taliban would run out of supplies in a week.   
   >   
   > I think the main justification for the bans is the post conflict   
   > paralysis   
   > they cause.   
   > I have always wondered why they dont incorporate time fuses or timed   
   > de-activators.   
   > mr.smith   
      
   Conventional land mines are not what unconventional forces use.  They use   
   their own home-made improvised devices which are, by their nature, designed   
   to cause the most civilian casualties, so as to terrorize the population   
   into submission.  They are not out to "win the hearts and minds" of the   
   populace, they are out to terrorize enough people so that the remainder will   
   do what they are told.  And the Taliban also use the religious claim that   
   they are enforcing the will of Allah.   
      
   The push to ban land mines, amongst conventional forces, is that they do not   
   discriminate amongst the armed enemy and the unarmed civilian population.   
   Minefields are, when composed of the usual tank and antipersonnel mines,   
   marked by one side or the other (I designed and marked a few minefields on   
   the DMZ in Korea) and removed when not needed.  It is the air and   
   artillery-delivered cluster bomblets that cover a target, then remain, after   
   the war, only to get picked up by some kid.  Depending upon the system they   
   could be disabled by a timer.  The real problem is that some of them are   
   "duds" in that they did not go off (because of age, or the way they hit,   
   whatever.)  And so within hours they may be picked up by a scavenger.   
      
   The change that is going on is the use of precision weapons rather than area   
   coverage weapons.  You now hear of precision strikes by Predator drones, and   
   much less of air-deliverd cluster bomblets.  I don't think the US has   
   employed them in years.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)