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Ukraine desperate for help clearing mines, says defence minister (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by alphacyberranger@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] whataboutshutup@discuss.online 11 points 1 year ago

It's fucked up that these mines won't become dud after some time. It means that even after the war comes to it's end, some undiscovered mines would continue to kill and maim civilians. What a stupid, dull weapon, but there are plenty of them to throw around.

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Some mines are designed to self-destruct after a defined interval. FM 20-32 (Mine/Countermine Operations) ^PDF^ describes some of the US-made systems starting on page 3-6 and notes that 2-5% of mines are expected to remain live after their self-destruct time has passed. Not the best but it's better than a freshly-laid minefield at least. There are also procedures to follow for marking minefields as well as record-keeping and reporting requirements so they're easier to locate and clear afterward.

[-] Comment105@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

An effort for good ethics that the Russians would never tolerate. I wouldn't say the US military is particularly ethical, but at least they tolerate and cooperate with some ethical initiatives.

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I can understand your viewpoint, there's no shortage of evidence to support that line of thinking. "Shit happens" doesn't quite cover it when said shit that happened involves maiming and loss of innocent life. There's a wide range of personalities and motivations that can compel a person to sign an enlistment contract or make whatever the dark pact is that results in commissioning as an officer. Some parts of the population are over- or under-represented due to the availability of other opportunities so it's not a perfect representation of the US but you do get to meet a lot of people who would otherwise probably never be within the same state as you.

My experiences mostly put me in contact with people who joined up to do some good in the world but I know that's not universal and even then, there are times when almost everyone will fall short of the ideal. I believe it's due to circumstance than any strength of character that the stuff that I got wrong never resulted in death, injuries or significant damage. That being said, the people I've known and respected took their moral and ethical responsibilities seriously because they cared about the outcome of their actions and the impact on everyone involved.

Might not be much point to this and I'm just thinking with my keyboard. My best attempt to try and tie this together is that we don't always get things right, sometimes people set out to do harm to others and get what they're looking for but it'd be a mistake to look at the US military as a monolith since there are good people doing their best to form it into what they believe it could and should be.

[-] TheBlue22@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Too bad only civilized countries use these mines

[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu -1 points 1 year ago

The US also use them.

[-] TheBlue22@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I think you misunderstood my comment

[-] ahal@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

They were joking that the US is not a civilized country.

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023

149 points (98.1% liked)

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