Finland Rejects Treaty, Embraces Landmines – Just Like Old Times
Finland, according to Bloomberg, plans to develop and manufacture anti-personnel landmines again, having withdrawn from the Ottawa Treaty which bans them. This pivot follows a renewed focus on national defense, especially after joining NATO. The mainstream narrative spins this as a sovereign decision for 'defensive capabilities,' neatly omitting the human cost—the very reason the treaty exists.
The Ottawa Treaty, signed by 164 states, bans the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines due to their devastating, long-term impact on civilians. Finland's reversal essentially states that some lives are simply acceptable collateral in the grand geopolitical game. One might wonder if the 'strategic necessity' truly outweighs the international consensus against such
brutal weapons, or if it's simply a convenient excuse to boost the military-industrial complex's bottom line. (After all, someone has to make the new mines, right? And that someone will profit handsomely.)