U.S. political commentator Tucker Carlson, a controversial figure who holds influence by having Donald Trump's ear, has slammed the outgoing administration's decision to provide Kyiv with landmines, warning the weaponry Ukraine claims it needs to defend itself from Russia's invasion will only "kill innocents."
"There's no justification for using
On the one hand, Carlson being against it makes me assume that it’s probably a good thing, but on the other I’m usually pretty against the use of landmines because they have a strong tendency to sit around for a long time and maim random civilians.
But if he said the sky was blue I’d have to go check for myself.
The landmines that Biden approved are battery powered. While they are still indiscriminate killing machines, they will self-neutralize rather than remain dangerous for decades to come.
This. U do still have to worry about what the error rate is considering the vast number that will be deployed.
Yup.
I think Biden is wrong for the reasons you lay out. It won’t just be the Russians that suffer from mining.
WWII ordinances still get pulled up pretty regularly in France.
World War II ordinances didn’t rely on batteries and so remain(ed) dangerous for far longer.
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These are still explosive. While the triggering mechanism may go bad after the battery dies, are the explosive chemicals neutralized? What happens on a shock to the device? For example, if it’s crushed by a vehicle or hit by a plow blade?
I can grant that these are probably safer than yesteryear’s model, but I also think you are still setting up bobbytraps that are potentially dangerous for decades.
Most explosives are chemically and physically stable like c4. Driving over them isn’t going to set them off, nor is hitting them with any kind of blunt force.
Hell, you can even burn C4 and it does not explode.
Interesting concept for a BBQ - C4 instead of charcoal.
Do some research and get back to us.
I mean they’re being invaded, and by Russia out of all countries. Just like their use of cluster ammunition, they probably decided it’s worth the risk.
Well, some of them did. Conscription is active in Ukraine which means there’s a lot of people involved against their will.
Yeah, sure, because the technology is exactly the same now as it was 80 years ago.