Child Specific Mines in Afghanistan: The Green Parrot
I came across the "Green Parrot" at a UN exhibit in Ireland two decades ago. When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, they dropped these small mines from helicopters, and they would self arm when they reached the ground. The mines were made from brightly colored plastic and had an interesting shape. They would draw the attention of small children who thought they were toys. No, the mines were not meant to be lethal. The Soviets just wanted the Afghani children to be armless or legless so they couldn't grow up to fight.
Think about that for a minute. The Soviets knew that they would be in Afghanistan for a long, long time, long enough that they would see these small children grow up and take up arms against them. That is the level of commitment the Soviets had. They were willing to be engaged in combat for decades AND maim small children.
So what is this brilliant plan that Fearless Leader has in store for us? Are we committed to maiming children over several decades, too? I recommend you read through these articles and ask yourself what atrocities our country is capable of as we march off to war in Afghanistan.
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link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205978/Pictured-harrowing-plight-children-maimed-Afghanistan-thousands-landmines-scattered-country-decades-war.html
It's estimated that up to a million people have fallen victim to the sleeping weapons, which still kill and injure dozens of innocent Afghan children every day.
It's believed there are currently 10million mines spread around the impoverished country, which British and American forces left only last year after a campaign lasting more than a decade.
But the majority of the mines, in grazing fields, schools, paths and waterways all over the country, are the remnants of a war with Russia that ended in 1989. The Soviet Union went to war with the Mujehadien freedom fighters in 1979 and placed millions of mines during the ten-year campaign.
They were designed to flutter to the ground without exploding, but when stepped on, they take anything from one to 40 minutes to detonate. The cruel devices are intended to maim, with a small charge that is usually non-lethal, instead designed to destroy a part of the lower leg which will hamper a person's mobility for the rest of their life.
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Someone will counter argue that these mines were not necessarily meant for children. For that I have a second article for a rebuttal.
Link: http://www.pbs.org/pov/afghanistanyear1380/the-horror-of-landmines/
The Russian PFM-1, the so called butterfly mine, causes a third pattern of injury (Pattern C). This mine earned its nickname because it sports small wings that enable it to glide to the ground after it is released from a helicopter. A huge number of them were dropped during the conflict in Afghanistan. As has often been pointed out, the PFM-1 is particularly fiendish because it is a "toy mine" -- a weapon masquerading as a plaything. Specialists insist that the shape of the PFM-1 is dictated by function, but the fact remains that it is attractive to children.
A unique feature of these mines is that they are activated by distortion or cumulative pressure on their wings; in other words, they do not necessarily go off when first touched. In Afghanistan my co-workers and I were told several times that a child had taken the butterfly -- or "green parrot," as the Afghans call it -- and played with it for hours with friends before any explosion occurred. The term "toy mine" therefore seems totally justified. In our group's surgical experience of treating more than 150 victims of this type of mine, we have never seen a single injured adult.
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But I hope no one tells the Orange Menace about this. 
