The one thing that distinguished Obama's Senate voting record from Hilary Clinton's was his vote against cluster bombs, which dissolve into hundreds of small, colorful bits that are picked up by curious children and then explode, killing or maiming them. Given that, I find
this completely inexplicable:
The United States won't join its NATO allies and many other countries in formally banning landmines, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said during his midday briefing Tuesday.
"This administration undertook a policy review and we decided our landmine policy remains in effect," Kelly said in response to a question. "We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention."
But fear not! We have us a plan:
Kelly said the United States continues to work with governments as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help remove landmines.
"The U.S. is proud to be the world's single largest supporter of humanitarian mine action," Kelly said. "Since 1993 the U.S. has provided more than $1.5 billion worldwide dedicated to building new partnerships with more than 50 post-conflict countries and supporting efforts by dozens of NGOs to promote stability and set the stage for recovery and development through mine clearance and conventional-weapons destruction programs."
Well, when you're the largest supporter of war machinery and international murder in the world, I guess it behooves you to toss out some blood money in your wake. Nonetheless, what economic sense does it make to continue to create the conditions that require one and a half billion in clean up costs? This fails on so many levels from humanitarian to economic, that I fear for my President's mind. Really.
