It’s Time to Ban the Use of Landmines :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Its Time to Ban the Use of Land taps El Salvador, 6 April 1992--Three siblings died near the Guazapa volcano last weekend when they stepped on a mine planted during the period of civil warfare. Ironically, their parents had returned to the area only a few days earlier. The children were four, six and eight years old. Parts from the three childrens bodies were install as far as 30 metres from the explosion site. (qtd. in kick in 25) Antipersonnel landmines kill thousands of people every year. Antipersonnel landmines do not recognize a cease-fire they continue killing or maiming for many an(prenominal) years after the conflict is over. Antipersonnel landmines do not know apart between soldiers or civilians. On the contrary, more and more they are creation used in an indiscriminate way, terrorizing civilians and transforming agricultural fields into killing fields. In addition, de-mining is a very slow and very expensive process, and after a war most countries are no t prepared to cope with the uniform health care demands imposed by the number of injured by landmines. Finally, landmines make it very difficult for refugees to go back to their cities and villages. As result to the landmine problem, the international community has come up with a treaty to dismiss landmines. On March 1, 1999, the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty came into effect so far 134 countries have signed the treaty. Unfortunately, the U. S. is not one of them. The Encarta Encyclopedia defines a landmine as an encased explosive device that is concealed below the rise up of the ground. It can be made of metal, plastic, glass, or wood (n. p.). Probably the theory of landmines is almost as old as the existence of organized armies. Philip C. Winslow, in his book Sowing the Dragons Teeth, describes how Roman soldiers, before the beginning of the first millennium, used a plant with spikes as a landmine in order to delay pursuers (126). The Chinese, agree to Delbruck, used gr ound mines made out of explosives in the year 1232 (qtd. in Winslow 126). Six hundred years later, in 1840, the use of landmines was introduced in the joined States they were used in large quantities during the Civil War (Winslow 126, 127).