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20% of the land mines are in Afghanistan and they number in the millions. Maybe these things should either be not allowed anymore or some means of remotely exploding them after a war is over?
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Yup, we should make some kind of rule or law or something. That oughta take care of the problem.
JonC
*hellooooo....anybody home ?
*It was my understanding that the entire planet has been trying to ban land mines for some time now. Seems that there is this one country that refuses to go along 'cause it just can't figure a way to defend it's commitments without using land mines. Let's see, it's coming to me...oh yeah, that's us, the United States. Apparently we cannot defend South Korea without land mines.Well, that's my understanding...maybe someone will make me look bad and bring me up to date.Rich Beckman
*Maybe those now unenployed Taliban could be used to clear them?
*i this one country that refuses to go along 'cause it just can't figure a way to defend its commitments without using land minesYep. Unreal. It both pains and pleases me that our intelligence agencies are soliciting citizen's views/suggestions. No land mines that aren't easily located/disarmed is, IMHO, not an unreasonable request, given that we spend tons of $ repairing damaged limbs/lives in countries where we left these nasty deposits.Hmmm, maybe make the terrorists find them?
*GMTA Joe, I was just a bit tardy posting :-)
*Mikey you are so negative sometimes. (geezer)As long as we're making rules against cheap, low tech defensive weapons, how about outlawing booby traps in general? From now on, if you're outgunned and outmanned, I think you should just give up your family and die like a man. No reason an honest soldier should have to worry about tripwires and such."Any fool can make a rule and any fool will follow it"JonC
*You realize, of course, that I have just stolen that quote...
*But it would be a nice gesture if the US: a) would stop selling the things around the world to others. and b) would clean up their toys home after a conflict. That way you could secure your troup positions without killing women and children 50 years from now.
*Your idea is a good one. I recommend marking the location of all land mines not just with simple colored flags, but with short surveyor-type flags that are designed to look like flowers. They'll be effective as a marking tool, and dress up the landscape at the same time. A true win-win situation.It does dovetail nicely with my other idea..."Paint Ball War."No more bullets that hurt, no more shaped warheads on cruise missiles to designed to destroy and kill, etc. No more explosives allowed. Just paint balls.You get nailed by a paint ball, it's up to you to lay down for 48 hours, then get up and go home. Your tank, truck, or armored carrier gets "painted," shut it down...it's dead, and so are you. Can you imagine the satisfaction of being a tank commander inside a tank, in a heated engagement, and instead of yelling out for the loader to load "sabot" or "HEI," you could instead yell "fuschia" or "mauve"?The honor system would be required by all participants. Possibly we could incorporate a side-letter of agreement where if you "paint" somebody, you need to drop off a few meal packets as well. It'll make it easier for them to remain reletively immobile if they have sustinence. Of course, the color of the meal packet envelope will have to be coordinated so it will not clash with the color of the paint being used in that particular skirmish.For the first time ever, war would require honesty and cooperation from all participants. What a beautiful thing, eh?On the plus side, instead of destroying Red Cross buildings and hospitals, any errant bombs dropped by coalition forces would simply "redecorate" them.Carpet bombing with Mk 82-laden B-52s will be a thing of the past. Instead, we drop canisters filled with water-retaining hygroscopic material, fertilizer, grass seed, and green paint. Sure, we knock them out of the war by splattering them with green paint, but we reseed and beautify the countryside at the same time.Kelly's Heroes was way ahead of its time.
*Thoreau I think. Though he may have stolen it too. Ask Ralph.JonC
*You know Mongo, I think you're on to something here. Just for fun, I'm thinking we could add some native wildflowers to the newest high tech forage varieties of fescue and perennial ryegrass in the seed mix. Maybe paint the B-52's with markings resembling Holstein cows. Perhaps you could design a new "herd" flying formation for this kind of bombing?JonC
*After the gulf war, we cleared some mine fields by using the "daisy cutter" air-fuel bombs to trigger large numbers of them. The hard thing in Afghanistan is finding them. Many different factions down through the years have laid mines, without keeping records of their location. First world powers could reasonably be required to keep GPS coordinates of any mines they lay to facilitate clearing them after a conflict, but the problem will always be the low tech types. Mines are just too easy to make, there's no hope of eliminating them.-- J.S.
*I thought it was the russians who used all those land mines ?
*Well, from now on it's going to be by 'Luka'.b : )
*Interesting article today said...if yaa stay on pavement...yaa can avoid 99% of the landmines. Duh...What a strange weapon...The road less travelled...is more dangerous!near the stream staying on the pavement,nanuke
*When I was in the Army 30 years ago they had a nuke land mine. It would be used to close mountain pass when the first Russian tank passed. We also had a 155 howitzer nuke round that during an air burst would clear land mines.
*Another errant thought of mine...So we were wondering if a ground war could be won...in Afghanistan...The problem..the caves...Well caves have turned out to be great for us...not them...I see it this way...gorilla warfare...relies on moving to the hit...and dashing away to hide...along with one more key ingredient...Yaa gotta always change where you are...all the time...never be in the same place predictably...Well...caves...caves are like the Maginou Line...they don't move. and when yaa come out...you are right in the open...no trees...no cover except darkness...Well we love the dark...We don't have nights in our tactics anymore...we have eyes...that see in the night...So... Moutains...with trees...and streams..and rivers...and caves...are good...but...take away the trees...not good...And caves....Caves don't really bother us at all...We don't care about no stinkin caves...with wall to wall carpets...virgins..and all...nope...not a problem..Next...we need to squeeze some more zits...Usama...and company...We are a comin pal. Nuke us all you want to...We still gonna send you and yours to Alla Babba...See yaa..Wouldn't wanna be ya.near the stream,nanuke (just a wee bit oh babble...streamside)
*Mike...I love baby nukes....Got any army surplus?near the stream,nanuke
*How are we going to get gorillas involved in warfare?
*Threaten to nuke all their bananas.
*Luka, I'm wondering if you should change your ad to say "Tinkerer of the sublime", think about it. Call your high school english teacher and see what she says.
*i No land mines that aren't easily located/disarmed is, IMHO, not an unreasonable request, Um, like, wouldn't that make it easier on the guys those mines are there to kill?
*It is spelled exactly the way I intend. Think about it.b : )
*Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy!It's a profession of some sort, or at least was. Maybe a locksmith? Hmmm.did
*Car and Driver reviewed a mine clearing vehicle recently. It was based on a bulldozer chassis. The cab was at the extreme rear; at the front was a giant chain flail, with large chains on a horizontal spinning drum driven by its own engine. I believe the drum engine was actually more powerful than the drive engine. The chains penetrated the ground at least a foot, and could mulch a substantial tree trunk in seconds. Apparently this thing saw service in Bosnia.did
*One,No Army surplus. Although the scary part about this nuke discussion is that when I was in the Army one fell off a truck. People scrambled like heck but it just bounced.
*Okay, I did. But "tinker" is not the same as "master", neither is "masterer" the same as "tinkerer". :)
*Tinker - a fixer of things,like teapots, liquid holding vessels. A "Tinker's dam" was a wire that was inserted into the hole and soldered in place, or something like that. Therefore, I assume that a "Tinker of the sublime" is one who fixes it or plugs holes in it.Don
*You can help a little by hosting a dinner next Friday, November 30th. I'm not joking! Its an event called the "Night of a Thousand Dinners", sponsored by a broad range of groups. Eat some good food, raise a few dollars to clear landmines. We are doing one with our school group here, other friends are just having a dinner with a few other couples and sending a donation. It costs $3 to make a landmine, and $1000 to remove it, and every dollar helps. Check out:www.1000dinners.com and register your dinner. Will we change the world? No, not right away, but a little bit of trying wouldn't hurt anyone.(oh, I should add for you Beatle fans, Paul McCartney is a big sponsor of this, and you have a chance to win a signed lithograph of his if you host a dinner...)
*Very cool machine. I think I'd be alittle jumpy everytime I hit one though.
*Don: I thought a "tinker's dam" was a lump of lead from which the tinker would hammer a bit into a hole in a pot. Not much to it, hence, "Not worth a tinker's dam." -David
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20% of the land mines are in Afghanistan and they number in the millions. Maybe these things should either be not allowed anymore or some means of remotely exploding them after a war is over?