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Ottawa Treaty

Suggestions for a Stronger Ottawa Treaty The best way to make the Ottawa Treaty stronger is for policy makers in the United States to stop opposing it, which, of course, is easier said than done. American politicians always try to outdo each other in their support of patriotism, which in this society simply means militarism and support of global empire.

The manufacture and sale of lethal weapons has been one of America's primary exports, although this fact is rarely mentioned in corporate mainstream media. The producers of armaments are by definition well connected politically, since their main clients are the U.S. government. Landmines are obviously a profit center, and naturally those manufacturing them are loath to voluntarily give up the profits.

A military with bases in over 100 foreign countries obviously is concerned about encroachment, especially in the paranoid climate after 9/11. Therefore the planting of landmines around bases is seen as logical and indispensable from the military point of view.

It would help strengthen the Ottawa treaty if mines with timed self-destructors and metal strips implanted on them for easy detection could be universally used. But such innovations would perhaps stimulate a technologically neutralizing response. So technology is not the whole answer.

The key is for the United States to take a leadership role on this issue, and demonstrate by concrete action that it will stop the use of these weapons. Since it has much (but far from complete) leverage on its rivals China and Russia, there is no question that a reasonable treaty could be renegociated that would avoid the pitfalls of the current Ottawa Treaty.

But as the weapons inspections of Iraq demonstrated, attempts to monitor suspected violators are fraught with difficulties. So even a stronger, more carefully crafted, and universally approved treaty to ban landmines will not be a panacea for the problem.

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Ottawa Treaty. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704874.html