Opinion | What we re leaving behind in Afghanistan — and why we re leaving
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Opinion | On leaving Afghanistan
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Antipersonnel land mines, small explosive weapons that are buried underground or laid on the surface and meant to kill or maim people, can remain deadly for many decades.Credit.Louai Beshara/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
To the Editor:
Here we go again.
The statement by the Pentagon spokesman that land mines “are a vital tool in conventional warfare” means that the Biden administration will not be joining the 164 countries that are parties to the 1997 Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel land mines, including all of our NATO allies and every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.
It will also contribute to the reputation of the United States as having one of the worst international treaty ratification records in the world, nearly 50 treaties unsigned or unratified at last count.