Be Mine

Be Mine

   When one hears the word "mine," the thought is likely that of a shaft deep in the earth, a series of tunnels leading to minerals or fossilized petroleum.  But in the vein of the earlier post (sorry about the pun), the subject turns to cluster bombs, just one of the methods used to deliver explosive and damaging weapons, including in this case, mines.  As you're likely aware, buried mines continue to play an extensive role in modern warfare (ISIS often lines entry streets with them once they've taken over a city), despite being banned by countries throughout the world (165 countries have agreed to not only stop the production of anti-personnel mines, but to also not transfer or use their existing stockpiles but rather to destroy them; the United States, Russia and China --currently the 3 largest exporters of weapons-- are among the 35 countries still refusing to sign the treaty...in fairness, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines says this about the U.S. refusal: the USA is basically abiding by the treaty in practice: it has not used mines since 1991 nor exported since 1992.  It is the world's largest individual contributor to mine clearance efforts.  In 2014, the US government announced that it would officially stop the production and acquisition of antipersonnel mines, accelerate the destruction of stockpiles, and ban use of the weapon except on the Korean Peninsula.

   Princess Diana was one of the top celebrities advocating for the end of landmines while she was alive.  And no wonder since mines even then were quite sophisticated.  The simple Claymore mine, used extensively in WWII, was so "popular" that countries as diverse as Italy, Hungary, Serbia and China soon began making their own versions.  A directional mine, the Claymore is detonated remotely and carries 700 steel balls that shoot out with such force that the balls carry the impact of a .22 caliber bullet.  The mine is placed in the ground horizontally so the balls shoot out in an arc, from ground level to 6.5 feet high.  This method was so effective that Motorola developed a "bounding" mine for the Vietnam war, a mine that once triggered, shoots upward from the ground to chest level before exploding.

   Mines later grew into more sophisticated versions -- plastic and glass casings were developed to avoid detection by metal detectors, slower fuses were created to delay detection and explosion by clearing devices (most early mines were detonated by simply stepping on them, a simple fuse activated much like a clicking ball point pen as the trigger), to "gravel" mines with no moving parts (the U.S. created nearly 38 million of these in one year), to chemically-activated mines complete with a weighted screw end that spiraled itself into the ground when dropped from the air (in Laos, this was the primary anti-personnel weapon, for 120 of these could be loaded into a single cluster bomb deployer, with each plane carrying 40 such deployers; over a quarter million of these were dropped into Laos, and an estimated 80 million still remain in the ground, unexploded).

   By the time the fighting in Serbia arrived, mines had moved onto using thermal technology and sophisticated targeting methods.  Other cluster bombs exploded mid-air to spread the mines even further, while others dropped from above shot out streamers to disable electrical transmission lines (says Wikipedia about the use of these in Kosovo: On the first attack, these knocked out 70% of the electrical power supply in Serbia. There are reports that it took 500 people 15 hours to get one transformer yard back on line after being hit with these weapons.);  other mines landed and spread spider-like wires designed to activate them across an even broader range;  and the newer cluster munitions (such as some of those sold by the U.S.) are designed to deactivate automatically about 5 minutes after landing, an effort to prevent unnecessary civilians deaths years later.  The main factor in all such mines, however, is to maim and not to kill.  The idea was that such wounds would delay an enemy trying to help take care of the injured (a similar scenario is thought to be the strategy in a nuclear attack, the first wave coming in to initiate major destruction, with a second wave following some 6 hours later, the rationale being that medical units and others would arrive to carry and care for the wounded or begin to clear rubble, thus removing another large part of the surviving population).

   Such thoughts of how to torture or kill "enemies" has been around for centuries.  My wife and I toured such a museum of medieval methods of tortune while in the walled city of Carcassone, France.  Almost all of of these devices were created by religious figures, many of the robed figures pictured in drawings as they watched and operated spikes and gears that tore into victims (unfortunately, the majority of those being tortured appeared to be women). 

   Much of this is terrible to even consider, especially when the aftereffects of such weapons can still destroy life and limb with impunity (many mines were brightly colored at one time, mimicking relief packets and thus more susceptible to being picked up by an innocent villager; now, mines come in many colors, even camouflaged patterns to avoid detection).  The fact that the human mind can use such imagination and creativity to produce such horrors --and will likely continue to do so-- would appear to take a notch out of our many accomplishments as a species.  Again, placed on an overall sheet of our history, it would be interesting to view just how such intelligence and creativity would have benefited the world if only it would have been put to better use. 

   For more information, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize some years ago) both have details about what you can do to help and current updates regarding the political mood toward this issue.