Landmines

Jesus (who in this vision informed me of all that I needed)
answered by this word and said: "Sin is inevitable, but all shall be well,
and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love. Ch. 27
| Translation by Fr. John-Julian OJN. 

Perhaps for Julian of Norwich, surviving the 1348-1350 Black Death and the Peasants Revolt (1381), not to mention the beginnings of the persecution of break-away Catholics in England, it was possible to declare “all manner of things shall be well.” She was, after all, living in almost complete isolation in a cell attached to Norwich’s St. Julian Church (from which this otherwise unknown woman receives her name) and apparently supported by the charitable offerings of others.

But, one can hope, one can pray Julian would lead a chorus (presently missing the voice of American Christians) declaring 

It was evil. It is evil. It shall forever be evil.
It is sin. It shall never be well. It shall never be well.
And all manner of it shall never be well.

“Landmines, including APL [anti-personnel landmines] remain a vital tool in conventional warfare that the United States military cannot responsibly forego particularly when faced with substantial and potentially overwhelming enemy forces in the early stages of combat,” acting assistant secretary of defense for strategy plans and capabilities Victorino Mercado told reporters on Friday, January 31, 2020. 

But some would have us believe there is good news regarding these new landmines: “Commanders in the field are still required to take some mitigating measures to avoid civilian casualties… Reliability of self-destruction and self-deactivation safety features in the current inventory [landmines] is very high: there is only a 6 in 1 million chance of a U.S. landmine being active after a pre-determined period.” 

Oh, for joy. At a time when certain political leaders are promising to end “forever wars” and withdraw American forces from conflicts around the world, Mr. Mercado is telling us we need yet more landmines

Dear God, what is wrong with this picture? In an era when armed spy-in-the-sky drones piloted from hundreds or thousands of miles away can wipe-out individuals or whole groups of “enemy forces,” when America’s political leaders have pledged to remove troops from situations in which they will be “faced with substantial and potentially overwhelming enemy forces in the early stages of combat,” the present Administration has made a decision to reverse years of movement toward alignment with the 1997 treaty banning the same weapons. The policy announced in January 2020 rolls back US prohibitions on landmine production and use and repeals a 2014 Obama administration policy directive banning US production and acquisition of anti-personal landmines, as well as their use outside future conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

In January 2020 unexploded WWII bombs were discovered in Cologne and Berlin; two others were found in Dortmund; and, seven were found in the town of Gruenheide, where Tesla plans to build its first European factory. In January 2016, Smithsonian Magazine reported US and British air forced dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe – half of those on Germany. As many as ten percent failed to explode and now, 70-plus years later, more than 2,000 tons of unexploded munitions are uncovered on German soil each year. 

The Halo Trust has reported that since the 1979 end of the war in Cambodia landmines have claimed more than 64,000 lives and resulted in 25,000 amputations. 

During the Vietnam War, 14 million tons of ordinance were dropped on Vietnam – nearly three times the amount the US and its Allies dropped in WWII. An estimated ten to thirty percent failed to detonate. By 2017, more than 100,000 civilians had been killed by buried bombs and mines since 1975 and the Vietnamese government believed that around 15 percent of the country’s total surface area is contaminated by unexploded ordinance – and the rate rises to 84 percent in areas like Quang Tri Province. Nonetheless, the present American administration’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget called for a one-third cut in US appropriations for “non-proliferation, antiterrorism, demining and related programs” in Vietnam. 

Before 1997 and the global landmines prohibition, 25,000 civilians lost their lives each year to these explosives and countless others were maimed and injured. The ban cut those statistics by about 75 percent – to around 6,500 a year. 

Four thousand (4,000) anti-vehicle (AV) and 20,000 anti-personnel mines were laid In the ten-week Falkland Islands war between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982- 83. While the British cleared some mines in the immediate aftermath of the war, they stopped because of the high numbers of casualties incurred in the clearance operation. They simply fenced off the presumed positions of the mines. In 2009, a contract was awarded to clear all remaining mines from the islands.

Here’s the zinger: It is expected that all explosive remnants of war (ERW) will not be cleared from the Falkland Islands until December 2020 – 38 years after the war. And that’s (pardon the expression) the target date.

In August 2019 Angola announced that it had cleared landmines from more than 100,000 kilometers of road since its civil war ended in 2002. In the preceding two years there were 156 landmine-relate deaths and more than 88,000 Angolans are living with landmine-caused disabilities. 

While conflicts in Afghanistan, Mali, Nigeria, Syria and Ukraine have influenced the numbers of casualties, in 2018 Landmine Monitor recorded 6,897 people killed or injured by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) – nearly double the 3,457 recorded by Landmine Monitory in 2013. 

As in previous years, the majority of ERW casualties during the 2018-2019 reporting period were civilians; children accounted for 54 percent of all civilian casualties – a twelve percent increase over the past two reporting periods. Since it began global tracking in 1999, Global Monitoring has recorded more than 130,000 mine ERW casualties. 

Only Myanmar – Burma – and a small group of non-state armed groups used landmines in 2018. In 2019 there were 164 nations party to the Mine Ban Treaty and a de-facto moratorium on the production and use of weapons among countries in the world. 

For years, for many, many years before the very first words of every Mass I celebrate, I pray for my Marine Corps friends, I pray for my friend on active duty in the Army somewhere in the Middle East. For years, for many, many years I pray the Kyrie in honor of and through Father Vincent Capodanno, Catholic priest and member of the Maryknoll Missioners, Navy chaplain, belovedly known as “the Grunts’ Padre,” killed in action in Vietnam on September 4, 1967.

The citation for Father Capodanno’s Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously, read:

“In response to reports the 2d Platoon of M Company was in danger of being overrun by a massed enemy assaulting force, Lt. Capodanno left the relative safety of the company command post and ran through an open area raked with fire, directly to the beleaguered platoon.

“Disregarding the intense enemy small-arms, automatic weapons and mortar fire, he moved about the battlefield administering last rites to the dying and giving medical aid to the wounded.

“When an exploding mortar round inflicted painful multiple wounds to his arms and legs, and severed a portion of his right hand, he steadfastly refused all medical aid. Instead, he directed corpsmen to help their wounded comrades and, with calm vigor, continued to move about the battlefield as he provided encouragement by voice and example to the valiant Marines.

“Upon encountering a wounded corpsman in the direct line of fire of an enemy machine gunner positioned approximately 15 yards away, Lt. Capodanno rushed a daring attempt to aid and assist the mortally wounded corpsman. At that instant, only inches from his goal, he was struck down by a burst of machine gun fire.

“By his heroic conduct on the battlefield, and his inspiring example, Lt. Capodanno upheld the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the cause of freedom.”

Let us pray for the safety of all of our troops, but let us say NO to the idea of more landmines. 

Now, the United States is preparing to develop new landmines. 

Julian of Norwich might cry

It was evil. It is evil. It will forever be evil.
It is sin. It shall never be well. It shall never be well.
And all manner of it shall never be well.