Aftermath Of War
One thing that I have to say is that this world is really screwed up, but I am sure that most of you already knew this. We are not just screwed up in one particular area, but in many. At times it seems that we can get nothing right. We put labels on food in this country, so that the person buying the food can know what is in it, yet we allow false claims to be printed on the box, or package. For example a product might claim to be whole grain and yet when you read the ingredients you see that it is mostly sugar. Yeah we are really screwed up. Political parties paralyze many governments by concentrating on getting even with those who got elected, rather than cooperating to improve conditions. While this stuff is bad enough, there is nothing worse than utter disregard for life and limb and we are guilty of that in a big way.
British Defusing German Shell In World War I
British Defusing Another Shell In World War I There are munitions left over from wars, accidents and such that are scattered through the world. These are live and still killing people. It seems that after every war dangerous ordnance is left everywhere. Some of it was dropped from planes and didn't explode and just waits under the ground and sometimes under structures, for someone to make a wrong move. Other ordinance was planted in the earth on purpose such as landmines. Then there are all those shells that were shot out of cannons, mortars and even RPGs that didn't explode. We are really in a mess on this planet. If you think that it is only third world countries that have this problem and that it only concerns conventional weapons, think again. I have mentioned this before, the US has lost nuclear weapons that fell out of planes right here in our own country and they are just laying in the earth and water somewhere, near big cities. Can you imagine what would happen if one of these babies accidentally went off? Not only would we experience devastation that would be unprecedented, but we would probably attack some other nation thinking that they were responsible. The old Soviet Union had never admitted to losing nukes, but if we did, they must have lost some too. They are probably sitting on nukes in the ground and facing the same perils that we face. It is certainly hard to tell how many are under the soil, or in the coastal waters of each country, but new estimates put the amount of lost nukes in the US at about 4 or 5. If the amount is equal in what is now Russia, the situation is risky. How long will these bombs remain capable of exploding? There are all different estimates on this point and some even say that it has become impossible for this to happen already, but I wouldn't want to bet the farm on this point. Remember that there are still munitions from World War I that are still capable of exploding.
Live World War I Shell Washes Up In Belgium In 2004 As hard as this is to believe, residents of what was once the Western Front in World War I are still finding live munitions from the Great War. Teams have been working steadily trying to find all those old munitions so that they can deactivate them. "People here have grown up with these shells," says Michel Colling, who works with a demining team in the northern city of Amiens. "[Residents] find them all the time and so it's banal for them and they have the tendency to see them as harmless." The population has to be reminded that these things are live and are very dangerous. They sort of seep up to the surface of the ground. This means that there are many more under the ground that have not been detected. How long will they remain active? Well they are over 90 years old and still explosive. Could it be that they will remain this way for another hundred years or so? No one is sure about this. Don't think that they are not exploding, they are and two of the crew that is excavating them has already been killed by exploding ordinance. Even in a sophisticated city like London, German bombs from World War II still pose a problem. In 2008 a 2,000 pound unexploded German bomb forced the closure of several roads while a crew removed it. It was not the first German bomb to be found that posed a danger to the city and it probably won't be the last. The bomb was 5 feet long and 2 feet wide. The removal crew pumped steam into the explosive section of the bomb to render the explosive harmless so that it wouldn't blow up in their faces as it was being removed. The crews removing these old bombs from London have gotten quite good at their jobs. This type of bomb is found in countries that suffered from bombing attacks, whether from the Axis or Allied powers.
Landmines Perhaps even worse than unexploded bombs are landmines. They get planted and when the conflict is over, they are just left where they are by many combatants. How many countries do you think have a problem with landmines? I know, it is hard to guess, but what did you think, 5, 10, 20? You would have been way off. There are 82 countries that have a landmine problem. Yes you heard me correctly, 82 countries. In our hemisphere it start with a few in Central America and more in South America. This is due to all the local conflicts that have raged over the years. Africa is full of countries with landmine problems as is Eastern Europe, and Asia. The zone between the two Koreas is said to have more landmines than anywhere else on earth. About the only continents that are truly free of landmines, other than the poles, are North America and Australia. Every day people are getting hurt and killed by these things. Left over munitions are a terrible thing. The landmines between the two Koreas are not left over munitions however. They were put there to keep out an invasion force from North Korea. For years some countries and organizations have been trying to ban landmines. The US was not for the ban, because it felt that the landmines were needed to keep North Korea from invading South Korea. If peace is ever reached between the two countries, than maybe the US will fall behind the ban on land mines?
Depleted Uranium Shells Every war and every conflict leaves behind lethal artifacts. The losers of the conflict have no interest in cleaning up their mess and while some winners do, they may not know exactly where all the landmines are, never mind the unexploded bombs and shells and now there is another danger. It is called depleted uranium munitions. It is radioactive and when a shell is fired, it not only leaves the blast area radioactive, but it spreads tiny particles of radioactivity into the air. The half life of these munitions is said to be 4.5 billion years. In other words, it is almost impossible to clean up, but like every other military decision, killing the enemy comes first, never mind the health of your soldiers, or those civilians that are in the area. Yes I know that we have to win if we are in a battle, but there has to be other, less contaminating ways to do it. Hey we all live on the same planet and ultimately if enough of these shells are used, it will effect everyone. |
