Political Quotes

“I will just respond briefly. Is the Senator speaking of holding onto landmines that the Joint Chiefs have already said they are prepared to give up? Command detonated landmines are still available. We use those in Korea and elsewhere. Nothing bans those in this treaty. And as for self-destruct mines, the President has already said the Pentagon will give them up outside Korea by 2003, and in Korea by 2006. The Pentagon has also said it is searching aggressively for alternatives to the use of anti-personnel mines in mixed mine systems. These are self-destructing mines. So if there are military officers who are saying they oppose finding alternatives to these mines, they are speaking out of school. That is not consistent with the Pentagon's policy. My friend from Arizona speaks of having the military's input. Of course we should have the military's input. If we were to sign any treaty of this nature, we would. And we would require two-thirds of the Senators to vote for it before the President could even ratify such a treaty. A lot is made of Korea. Obviously we are concerned about the defense of Korea. But I say to my friends, talk to the former commander of our forces there, General Hollingsworth, or General Emerson. They say landmines caused more problems for our forces than they solved. Our forces are highly mobile. You don't want to impede their mobility by sowing a lot of landmines around.”