Land Mines

Do you think land mines should be banned from warfare?  Why?

I personally don't, they're just too useful and cost effective to do away with.  I know they are harmful afterwards but after wars powers should help in cleaning up their land mines.  When Korea is reunited, America will get rid of ours in the DMZ.  I think most of the problem is caused by people using mines as terror weapons, or merely caused by civil warfare that has been so prevalent demining has not been possible.  I also think that by agreeing to such a ban, America would be putting our troops at risk by signing such a treaty.  Furthermore, many countries will merely sign such a document and not follow through.  America and most of the West would be at a severe disadvantage created by such a double standard. 

For such reasons, I think land mines should still be kept in my country's arsenal.

I think this a bit of an academic discussion. Landmines are not going to be banned, they're cheap and effective.

Also you can't really lump then all together. Anti-Tank mines are little risk to civilians and allow a small nation the capacity to destroy the MBT's of a major. It's the small plastic anti-personel mines and air-drop minelets that are the problem and designed with civilians part in mind. In an ideal world they would be banned.

Yeah, I did actually.  Some of those new mines looked so awesome.  Like that little briefcase that can shoot out 35 mines in about a second.