Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Landmines: Obama's ultimate betrayal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/21/obama-landmine-ban-betrayal


My personal breaking point, after months of jaw-dropping astonishment at Obama's betrayals, was his refusal almost alone of the world's leaders to ban child-killing landmines and cluster bombs. His state department announced this shameful policy on Thanksgiving eve, as if to hide it from public notice. Obama is continuing Bush's policy of refusing to honour an international antipersonnel landmine ban – the Ottawa treaty – signed by 158 nations.

It's so cruel and pointless. Mostly the victims are the rural poor, many of them children of the same age as the president's two daughters. They die from shock or blood loss far from any hospital; and the survivors suffer amputations and blinding.