Cheap and deadly, landmines have been the targets of a spirited grass-roots abolition campaign for the past 15 years. The largely successful campaign resulted in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention. As of July 1, a total of 145 countries had ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, and another eight had signed but not yet ratified. The United States has not been a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, but has agreed in the past in principle with the goal of abolition, and has not apparently deployed antipersonnel mines since the Gulf War in 1991. Since 1992, the US has had a prohibition on exports of antipersonnel mines.

All that may be about to change.

In February 2004, after two and a half years of review, the Bush administration announced a new landmine policy that reversed years of progress toward abolition. The policy officially disavowed the previously stated goal of ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty on the grounds that the treaty would have required the US to give up a "needed military capability." Now, the results of that policy shift are beginning to be seen:

* Congress will decide in December whether to begin production of a new class of antipersonnel mine called Spider.

* According to an unconfirmed media report, in May 2005 the US Army was to begin deploying in Iraq a new remote-controlled landmine system called Matrix, using technology developed for Spider.

* The Pentagon has requested $1.3 billion for development and production for another new antipersonnel mine, disingenuously called the Intelligent Munitions System. Congress is expected to decide on full production in 2008.

* There is concern that a US proposal for an international prohibition on export of landmines that do not self-destruct will pave the way for the resumption of US export of antipersonnel mines that do self-destruct. Both self-destructing and persistent landmines are prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty. Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations agencies, and pro-ban governments have long argued that a global prohibition must include all types of antipersonnel mines.

Simply put, the campaign to ban landmines has largely been successful because the weapon is barbaric. Countries throughout the unindustrialized world that have been the site of past or present armed conflicts are plagued by landmines scattered throughout the countryside, weapons that can lie dormant for years and continue to maim or kill farmers and peasants. Some mines use brightly colored covers to attract children who, thinking they are toys, get blown to bits. Inexpensive to produce, some countries have literally millions of landmines scattered across the landscape.

The United States still stockpiles 10.4 million of these mines, third in the world behind China and Russia. The US also has 7.5 million antivehicle mines, with their production and export ongoing. And the US continues to use cluster bombs and other weapons that function much the same as antipersonnel landmines, with the ability to lie dormant for years before killing.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines--the grass-roots group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997--has been working with US peace groups like United for Peace, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Justice and Peace Action to try to organize opposition to this December's congressional vote on the Spider system. This weekend the many thousands coming to Washington DC to protest the war in Iraq will include contingents planning to lobby their congressional representatives to defy the Pentagon and the Bush administration and derail plans for resumption of landmine production. This is not a conservative or liberal issue; it is an issue of human rights, and of America's willingness to use a weapon considered beyond the pale by its allies and, indeed, most of the world.

Of course, one needn't go to Washington to lobby congressional representatives. Now would be a fine time to call or write your representatives and urge them to not fund Spider or America's new generation of antipersonnel mines. On this one issue, at least, the US can well afford to honor the standard respected by the rest of the world.