Patrick Leahy: “a Vermonter who is on active duty in the U.S. Army contacted me recently to let me know of his support for a ban on…”

“a Vermonter who is on active duty in the U.S. Army contacted me recently to let me know of his support for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. He wrote from personal experience, and his comments mirrored those I have received from so many other servicemen and women who have seen first-hand the danger these weapons pose to our own troops. Here is what he wrote: In the many training exercises in which I have participated, landmines were relatively ineffective in disrupting enemy attacks. Landmines often caused fratricide casualties among one's own troops. The locations of the training landmines were almost never properly recorded. The modern battlefield is simply too fluid and complex to accurately keep track of all the landmines that are emplaced. Under actual combat conditions, these landmines will represent a certain threat to the lives of U.S. personnel. Mr. President, compare that to a recent U.S. Army report which concluded that landmines contributed to the high rate of fratricide during recent exercises at Fort Irwin, CA.”