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Comment by malandrew | Hacker News Reader

Do the number of casualties remain relatively constant over time or have they been trending downwards as more ordinance is detonated accidentally?

In other words, is the rate of accidents high enough to de-mine and reduce the likelihood of future accidents?

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I imagine a big part of the reason that we don't help them demine is that it's probably not a technically feasible task. I really don't know anything about de-mining or munitions and I don't have a good solution to offer.

In theory it sounds great to pay Laotians to de-mine fields in an organized and systematic manner, thus making quantifiable progress, progressively de-mining, and boosting employment. I don't know if it would work or if it's a realistic goal.

US assistance for UXO in Laos has been slowly increasing (though some point out it's only a tiny fraction of the amount spent bombing the country in the first place).

Can't we use something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFY2vTW538

Edit: I found an amazing video of a man disarming a mine that I thought I'd share as well. I assume this is how they do it over there currently. "If you press that, blow up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfNZoXr6rQ

Awesome video! I can't help but notice how casually they act.

That dude is my hero now. Coolest guy in the world. The inner working are also fascinating to see up close.

Edit: Compare him to this guy[0] doing the same mine.

Edit Edit: Down that same rabbit hole I found this[1], I had no idea this stuff was so easy to find.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa9CtYH5I5o

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmMy8Hq8oI

As for "use something like this", where "this" is any kind of technology that tries to detonate mines by force/and or grab up in bulk. You need to be very, very certain that you get all mines. Would you let your child play in the section woods with "hardly any mines" in it?

The issue with forcefully exploding mines is that a certain number might be defective, and/or unstable. Maybe the trigger doesn't work well enough - but maybe it can still go off - perhaps the main charge becomes unstable on its own etc.

There's a reason anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions are illegal (well, in/by civilized countries, anyway) - it's really, really hard to de-mine/clear up this stuff.

Interesting video.

I had never considered that, thanks for the context.

You mean illegal as in prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions[1]? Signed by all civilized countries of the world, of course. Except for, among others, the U.S., China and Russia.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munition...

It is definitely something in the art of the possible. It's just expensive.

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