Political Quotes

“Landmines have been around since at least the American Civil War, when live artillery shells were concealed beneath the surface of roads, in houses, even in water wells. They would explode when a person inadvertently came into contact with them, whether a soldier or an innocent child. The result was an arm or leg blown off, or worse. At the time, General Sherman, who is not remembered as a great humanitarian, called them a 'violation of civilized warfare.' Yet despite Sherman's condemnation, landmines have been used ever since, in steadily increasing numbers. My own knowledge about landmines dates to 1988, when I met a young boy in a field hospital on the Honduras-Nicaragua border. He had lost a leg from a mine that had been left on a jungle path near his home. It was because of that boy that I started a fund to get artificial limbs to landmine victims around the world. The war victims fund has been used in over a dozen countries, including Vietnam. That boy is one of countless people whose lives have been irreparably harmed by landmines. We have all seen the photographs of children with their legs blown off at the knee; their mothers with an arm or a leg missing; hospital wards filled with rows of amputees. They tell the gruesome story, yet those people, who face a lifetime of hardship, are the lucky ones because they survived. There are many thousands of people like them, and as many others who died from loss of blood before reaching a hospital.”