Land mines

General Barry McCaffrey received three Purple Heart medals for injuries sustained during his service in the Vietnam War, two Silver Stars, and two Distinguished Service Crosses — the second-highest U.S. Army award for valor. He was inducted into U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame at U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning in 2007.

Why? Because it was President Obama who limited land mine use and brought the U.S. in line with the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, under which 164 countries have banned their use.

One of Trump's greatest ambitions in life is to destroy all of Obama's accomplishments. His narcissism cannot tolerate the knowledge that he will never come close to being a president of Obama's stature. 

The cost to the innocent for his raging ego has no meaning for him, no reality. He literally has no conscience.

Why the land mine, a persistent killer of civilians, is coming back under Trump

"In 2018, nearly 20 civilians were killed or injured every day by land mines and other unexploded ordnance remnants, such as cluster munitions, according to the International Coalition to Ban Landmines. That is almost certainly a conservative number. Children represented 40 percent of the casualties, the group reported."

Cambodia still has large numbers of mines from the spillover of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. A veteran replied to General McCaffery:

"In Vietnam alone, leftover land mines and other explosives dropped by the United States have killed 40,000 people since the end of the war, and it may take 300 years for all remaining munitions to be cleared. In other words, the last Vietnamese person to be killed by an unexploded U.S. munition probably hasn’t even been born."

But, well, dead children, children missing limbs, not important. The important thing is to piss off Obama, yes?

Do they know? Just today I read Joe Walsh (Republican running against Trump for the nomination in 2020 election) describe going to a Trump rally and talking to some of the people waiting for the rally to start.

"I asked about 40 folks a very simple question: Has Donald Trump ever lied to the American people? Every single person said “No.” No, Trump has never lied. A few people told me that Trump, unlike Obama, has never golfed. Nobody in line knew that Trump was increasing the debt way faster than Obama.Nobody knew that under Trump our deficit was now greater than $1 trillion. Almost everyone thought that China was paying for Trump’s tariffs."

Yesterday, I read the report of another person who had gone to a rally and had a similar experience. No one he talked to knew that Trump's 2020 budget includes drastic cuts to Medicare and they were startled and distressed about that.

I have no idea what they know about land mines. I'm willing to guess that they are not being told that they have no real military value, that actual military experts like General McCaffrey want nothing to do with them, that what they do, mainly, is kill and maim children for decades to come.