USA! USA! Guess who makes all the landmines Obama refuses to ban?

[elehhhhna]

...our pension funds include holdings worth $53,375,394 in no less than five landmine manufacturers, including Honeywell. The others are Lockheed-Martin, which produces the M-26, ADAM, GEMSS, M-74 and CBU-78, as well as the WCMD delivery system (20); Raytheon, which manufactures the BLU-92B (21); Texas Instruments, which makes the M-87 and BLU-92B (22); and Rockwell, which also manufactures the BLU-92B as well as the M-87 (23).


http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/features/60_feat2.html

[dysfunctional press]

1. military hardware is what keeps us number one in the world when it comes to manufacturing.

u-s-a! u-s-a! u-s-a!

[salguine]

13. Because weapons are, in fact, the only thing we still make anymore.

[dysfunctional press]

15. despite what you may think- no, they aren't

but the industry does make up a pretty big slice of the overall pie, dollarwise.

from semiconductors to locomotives, we still make a lot of different things for export.

[TheWraith]

2. You know we don't export those, right?

They're strictly to stock the US military.

[elehhhhna]

3. 1) doubt that -- which of those companies do you trust? Name one. 2) still shameful

regardless.

WTH are qwe doing w. all these mines?

[Posteritatis]

4. The Korean DMZ. (nt)

[DireStrike]

17. Shouldn't they be done mining that by now?

It's been how many decades?

[Posteritatis]

20. Most modern US mines degrade, by design or otherwise

If I remember correctly, most modern US mines either self-destruct or otherwise render themselves inoperable after a set time limit, to avoid fun things like Soviet-era minefields still blowing off the occasional limb in Afghanistan, Chechnya or wherever else. It's a relatively new thing, last fifteen years or so if I recall, as an admittedly laughable attempt at a compromise with the push to ban the things entirely. They're definitely not like bunkers or the like, where you plonk one down and leave it there without doing much else to it; the kinds of minefields the US or South Korea need (or think they need, etc) along the Korean border would be fairly high-maintenance as far as such things go.

If they could just park there reliably for an indeterminate amount of time, there'd be less of a need for a glut of companies manufacturing the things. On the other hand, they'd be lying there for an indeterminate amount of time, which obviously drags in all sorts of problems of its own. If they aren't going to just eliminate the things entirely, which really isn't likely to happen anytime soon, it becomes an annoyingly gray area as to which sort they rely on to fortify the border.

[Romulox]

5. Define "export"...they're not deployed here in the US, that's for sure! nt

[tritsofme]

6. Grant the US an exemption for the Korean DMZ

and maybe we can make some serious progress on the issue.

[elehhhhna]

8. great idea but what is "demilitarized" about a landmine strewn zone?

"We need more mines for the demilitarized zone." DOes that make any sense whatsoever? And 7 manufacturers? Yeah, I mean they also make money on depleted-uranium munitions, etc., but how many frikkin landmine maufacturers do we "need"? GEEZ.

[Posteritatis]

9. I think the minefields aren't in the DMZ itself

But rather on the South Korean side of the line.

One of the weird things about the DMZ proper is that it's basically a paradise for local wildlife - no settlements (or humans at all in most places), no military activity, nothing that unexpectedly explodes, the works. The place has largely been untouched for almost sixty years and is probably one of the most pristine de-facto nature reserves on the planet because of it.

[jberryhill]

11. Ummm... once in a while....

http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sustain/msg0818560613110.html

"There are also periodic explosions when animals such as a deer stumble into mine fields."

But, yes, part of reunification should be maintenance of the DMZ as a nature preserve.

[jberryhill]

10. The mines are what keep it demilitarized

"DOes that make any sense whatsoever?"

Yes, it makes perfect sense. It is a no-man's land, and it will remain that way until Korea is re-unified.

Korean reunification is a difficult problem at the moment, because the North is, frankly, run by a sociopath. The problem on the South is that a sudden reunification would damage their economy and flood their cities, since there is literally nothing, nada, zip, to support a decent standard of living in the North. That's why some ROK industrial giants are building infrastructure projects on a limited basis in the North - simply to have some sort of groundwork in place for an eventual reunification. It's a much more difficult problem than German reunification, because East Germany was a luxury paradise relative to the utter deprivation in North Korea.

Are you familiar with the Korean security situation? At all?

It's a cease fire. That war did not end.

Korea At Night:

[elehhhhna]

12. ya think the cia would have disrupted KimJongIll's reign.

[jberryhill]

19. Oh, I'm sure they'll get right on that, now that you've suggested it....

Yeah... infiltrate a closed society and do, um, what?

Disloyalty in the ruling elite there is weeded out before puberty.

Speaking to a foreigner (the few foreigners permitted in for the canned tour of Pyongyang that is *exactly* the same for every group) without a license to speak to foreigners is a capital offense.

It's tighter than the Soviets could have imagined... or even wanted.

It's practically a mass experiment in brainwashing.

Sabotage their industry? They have virtually none.

Screw with their agriculture? Ummm.... they are going to come up short again this year already.

There is no "opposition" to support, and even asking the wrong questions is "dissent".

But the CIA can just snap their fingers and topple the structure there. I'm so glad there is a simple solution to every problem.

[Posteritatis]

21. The CIA is not omnipotent

Even if a reputation of same is in their favor and probably actively cultivated.

If Castro is likely to die in bed, North Korea's leadership's as close to bulletproof as makes no difference. They'll go down sooner or later, but it'll almost certainly be at their own hands.

[jberryhill]

22. Yep...

Like the Soviet Union, it's just a matter of time with North Korea.

It cracks me up that a "progressive" supports active destabilization measures as opposed to the largest example of a non-violent passive resistance strategy in the world.

[MNDemNY]

7. As I stated in an earlier post.

IT IS NOT ABOUT "KOREA" IT IS ABOUT $$$$$$$$$$$$$

[AllentownJake]

14. President Obama can't unilaterally ban land mines

He could agree on a moratorium of their deployment, but the President does not have the power to ratify treaties, that is for the Senate, and seeing that 30 have no problem with rape, I doubt 66 would be disgusted by land mines.

[L0oniX]

16. Guess which congress critters hold stocks in those companies.

[AllentownJake]

18. I know Evan Bayh will somehow be involved

All that is evil in the world, eventually comes back to Evan Bayh.