Making the Case for U.S. Land Mines

Landmines Should Be an Option for the U.S., Washington Times, February 26, 2020. "On March 6, 2014, America’s highest-ranking military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, called anti-personnel landmines “an important tool in the arsenal of the armed forces of the United States.” Barely six months later, the Obama administration all but removed that tool from the U.S. arsenal by declaring the U.S. would not use landmines outside the Korean Peninsula. The Trump administration has now rightly overturned that policy."

Quit the PoA

The United States Should Withdraw from the U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5040, February 20, 2020. "The last meeting of the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA), held in 2018, broke a U.S. red line and violated the PoA’s own rule of working by unanimous consent. The PoA has few if any substantive achievements. The only reason for the U.S. to participate was to prevent the PoA from making bad decisions and seeking to bind the U.S. with progressive norms. Now that the PoA has abandoned the principle of unanimity that allowed the U.S. to prevent bad outcomes, there is no reason for the U.S. to continue to participate. The U.S. should therefore take no part in the June 2020 meeting of the PoA."

Rejecting Obama's Unilateral Disarmament

The Trump Administration Is Right to Correct U.S. Landmine Policy, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5037, February 13, 2020. "On January 31, 2020, the Trump Administration canceled the Obama Administration’s policy that prohibited U.S. military forces from employing anti-personnel landmines outside the Korean Peninsula. The Obama Administration’s policy denied U.S. troops the use of weapons that could help to reduce U.S. casualties and help the U.S. military to prevail in future conflict. The Obama policy was adopted against the advice of the U.S. military, in order to please the progressive activists who have led the campaign against anti-personnel landmines, a campaign that has led only to the disarmament of democracies. The new U.S. policy issued by the Department of Defense responsibly authorizes Combatant Commanders, in exceptional circumstances, to employ advanced, non-persistent landmines specifically designed to reduce unintended harm to civilians and partner forces."