1997 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People’s Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however. (wikipedia)
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It was a tossup today between the landmine treaty (Since 1990, the United States has exported more than $152 billion worth of weapons to states around the world. Many of these sales have been to repressive and/or unstable governments.) and the Bhopal gas leak for today’s American failure. But the leak was likely an accident. America wanting to make and sell landmines was no accident. It’s a shameful crime.

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December 3, 2007 at 2:59 pm
jonolan
Actually the treaty would have banned all emplaced munitions, which would have included the M118 Claymore. US troops use the Claymore for protecting our forward firebases and we rarely use them in a totally unattended fashion these days.
I wish there could have been more of a compromise and consensus solution, but – in the wake of HRH Diana’s demise – that just wasn’t going to happen.