{"id":109855,"date":"2017-12-04T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T16:23:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-08T10:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T10:55:46","slug":"let-sleeping-mines-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/let-sleeping-mines-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Sleeping Mines Lie?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><h3 class=\"post-title entry-title\" itemprop=\"name\"><\/h3>\n<div class=\"post-header\"> <\/div>\n<p>That&#8217;s the title of a thought-provoking article in a recent issue of  Jane&#8217;s Defense Weekly, authored by Colin King, editor of companion  journals on mines and explosive ordnance disposal. An excerpt from Mr.  King&#8217;s piece can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.janes.com\/defence\/news\/jdw\/jdw060904_2_n.shtml\">here<\/a>; the full article is available only through subscription.<\/p>\n<p>In  his op-ed, King blows a considerable hole in one of the pet causes of  the Hollywood elite. Sometime between those AIDS fund-raisers and the  celebrity sing-alongs for starving Africans, various members of the  Hollywood set decided that leftover landmines represented a grave danger  to humanity. There were more than a few photo ops involving various  actors, many aping Princess Diana&#8217;s famous poses with young victims of  unmarked mine fields, and wearing an EOD technician&#8217;s protective armor  and visor. If it was a worthy cause for Princess Di, why it would  certainly suffice for Hollywood&#8217;s &#8220;royalty.&#8221; Humanitarian demining  became the cause of the moment. Democratic members of the U.S.  Congress&#8211;always anxious to serve their film community  constituency&#8211;even took up the banner, proposing that land mines be  bannned.<\/p>\n<p>As Mr. King points out, many of these fears were  exaggerated, and revelations about the &#8220;supposedly indefinite&#8221; land mine  threat do not account for one important factor: time. He notes that  there has been virtually no research into the effects of time and the  elements on land mines, even more advanced plastic models that  supposedly remain viable for decades after they&#8217;re buried. Such reseach  is a necessity, because annecdotal evidence suggests that most forms of  land-mines are vulnerable to the ravages of time and weather.<\/p>\n<p>For  example, steel-cased mines rust rapidly in wet, jungle climates such as  Africa&#8211;where the land mine problem is most pressing. As the mines lose  their structural integrity, it may disable the fuse mechanism, and  render the device inoperable. Likewise, water, heat and cold take their  tolls on trip wires that are sometimes used to trigger mines, and on  wooden mines that are difficult to find with conventional detection  gear. Even plastic mines are vulnerable to the environment. Mr. King  observes that the rugged VS-50 and TS-50 mines utilize a plastic bladder  as part of their blast-resistance mechanism. This bladder tends to  degrade quickly with exposure to hot weather, and as a result, neither  mine can function fully, though much of the weapon remains intact.<\/p>\n<p>The  implications of these findings are clear, according to Mr. King. Some  mined areas may already be safe, while others can simply be fenced off  for a few years and allowed to self-neutralize. It may also be possible  to accelerate the ageing process (once it is understood), and develop  counter-measures and detection gear based on these vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll  note that these results have been achieved without a single Hollywood  photo-op or fund-raiser. That&#8217;s because there isn&#8217;t much publicity or  public relations value in meeting with engineers and EOD  professionals&#8211;the sort of people who are solving this problem, and made  the discovery that time&#8211;and not celebrity activism&#8211;offers the best  long-term hope for dealing with the land mine issue.<\/p>\n<p>ADDENDUM:  A  reader&#8217;s comments reminds me of the differing approaches used by  various nations in dealing with the land mine threat.  These &#8220;solutions&#8221;  say as much&#8211;or more&#8211; about about cultural differences than military  capabilities, and they were aptly illustrated after the First Gulf War.   Clearing Saddam&#8217;s vast mine fields in Kuwait and became a  multi-national task.  In one sector, British and American EOD techs  carefully cleared mines, decked out in full protective gear, and using  state-of-the-art detection technology. <\/p>\n<p>In the adjoining sector,  an Egyptian unit was performing the same task, but with a decidedly  low-tech approach.  A line of Egyptian conscripts, walking  shoulder-to-shoulder, advanced slowly through the minefield, poking at  the ground with sharp sticks.  When their stick struck something in the  earth, the Egyptian would drop to his knees and carefully began digging.   On at least one occasion, I was told, one of the troops missed a mine  and triggered it, becoming &#8220;pink mist&#8221; in the blink of an eye.  During a  break, one of the Americans asked an Egyptian officer (who was not  following his troops into the mine field) why his Army used such  primitive methods, and didn&#8217;t invest in protective gear for  mine-clearing teams.  Pointing at the conscripts, the Egyptian said  dryly, &#8220;there are more where they came from,&#8221; and ended the discussion  with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s the title of a thought-provoking article in a recent issue of Jane&#8217;s Defense Weekly, authored by Colin King, editor of companion journals on mines and explosive ordnance disposal. An excerpt from Mr. King&#8217;s piece can be found here; the full article is available only through subscription. In his op-ed, King blows a considerable hole [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}