Feel Victims’ Pain And Act Accordingly Tick, Tick, Tick Every 20 Minutes, Someone In The World Is Injured By A Land Mine

Too bad President Clinton successfully avoided the military. If he had served, he might no longer feel the need to prove he’s a tough guy.

Certainly, some macho posturing is behind his adamant refusal to sign the international treaty banning the production, sale and use of land mines. He uses North Korea as the excuse. The mines, he says, keep that country in check because U.S. and South Korean forces are outnumbered.

Head cheese. That’s the phrase that comes to mind when he uses that reasoning. Clinton is making a decision based on his head, not his heart. And this is a guy who claims to feel our pain.

Clinton, and those other macho military types who support this hard-line stance, should be forced to meet some of the victims of land mines. They should don one of those spaceman getups Princess Diana wore when she toured land mine countries. They should listen to the stories of victims, the way Diana and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams listened to the men, women and children whose lives have been altered forever because of land mines.

An estimated 110 million anti-personnel mines remain buried worldwide. Every 20 minutes, someone in the world is injured by a land mine; 80 percent are civilians. Land mines kill and wound an average of 70 people a day.

Victims wander into fields and farms in search of water and food, step on a mine, and that’s it. Most developing countries, unlike the United States, do not have the same protections and programs for people with disabilities. Those maimed grow even poorer and are often shunned in their communities. The shame is passed down through families, ruining entire generations.

But if Clinton and the Machos aren’t moved by the tragedies in developing countries, let them meet the families of the U.S. servicemen killed and maimed by our own mines. There are plenty. Information from Pentagon archives shows that tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were blown apart by American mines during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Let the hearts lead on this issue. More than 100 countries, including Russia, have agreed to the treaty. It’s the United States’ turn now to be brave and sign.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Feel-good cave-ins costly in lives, too

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi Interactive editor