Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Another congressional stink bomb explodes in 10 months

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

TIME TRULY FLIES for politicians who make decisions and pass laws that don't go into effect for several years. The sad fact of life is that eventually the bill comes due and sometimes creates more problems than it solves. When the due date arrives, the law may have the odor of a pork chop that has been pushed to the back of a refrigerator for the same length of time.

Remember the land-mine moratorium that President Bill Clinton signed in February 1996? Well, it provides for our military forces not to use anti-personnel land mines for one year, starting Feb. 12, 1999. It was included in a foreign-appropriations bill despite opposition from the people responsible for U.S. military forces. The due date on that farce, foisted upon Congress by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., is now less than 10 months away.

Clinton's State Department tried to push him into signing the international treaty banning the production, use and sale of anti-personnel mines. This they failed to accomplish, but that self-imposed moratorium law passed by Congress is scheduled to go into effect next February.

Actually, there's little reason to fear such a temporary moratorium, if there isn't a conflict where our infantry troops need mines for defensive purposes. Our combat ground forces use these mines to protect larger anti-tank mines. Disarming our large land mines becomes a bit more dangerous if the enemy has to also contend with anti-personnel mines planted around them.

The international treaty signed by a 100 nations in Canada last year requires signatories to destroy their stockpiles within four years and remove all deployed mines in 10 years. Other countries not signing that treaty include Iran, Iraq, Libya, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, North Korea, South Korea and Vietnam.

Wisely, the U.S. moratorium scheduled for next year permits the use of mines along demilitarized zones and international borders. The request for adding this to the international treaty was denied.

The United States and South Korea believe the need for antipersonnel mines to protect antitank mines and military positions facing aggressive North Korea are a must. Mines are used in South Korea to deter and/or slow down an assault from the north and to force attackers into areas vulnerable to weapons fire. These areas are called "killing zones." We must remember that Seoul is only 40 miles from the border of North Korea. Without the use of mines, it would require at least 20,000 more U.S. soldiers to stop an invasion from the north. Also, without the mines, such an invasion would probably cost from 2,000 to 3,000 U.S. and South Korean casualties daily, according to one of several military studies.

So, why does the self-imposed moratorium bother the Pentagon? According to the New York Times, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in a report complains it would prevent the use of nearly two-thirds of our stockpile of mines. Also, he fears any restriction on the mixed use of anti-personnel mines to protect tank mines. Of course, it doesn't make any difference if there isn't any need for them. This ideal situation in today's world is difficult to predict with any accuracy.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, when she was U.S. representative at the United Nations, made the ignorant comment that "mines are a coward's weapon of choice." The secretary has never had the responsibility to set up a perimeter protecting fighting positions at night in a strange land. Nevertheless, today as the Cabinet member overseeing our foreign affairs, she continues to push this point of view.

No person in his right mind looks upon the deadly effects of land mines on people without deep concern. Mines are wicked weapons, but so are mortar shells, grenades, napalm bombs and automatic weapons. The special attention given to land mines comes from the continuing pain and killing they cause long after active combat ceases. For this reason, our country has developed "smart" mines, which self-destruct after a set period of time, and has spent $125 million to help other countries to clear old mine fields. Last year, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid added $4 million to the budget for training and new methods to clear mined areas.

In the meantime, Congress must reconsider the anti-personnel mine moratorium that is scheduled to become effective next February. If they don't rescind it, they had better hope the following 12 months don't require our already-weakened ground forces to engage an enemy.

Yes, members of Congress, that stench you smell could very well be the law you passed more than two years ago, with a due date now less than a year away.