Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 141 posts

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#91

Post by jacquesm »

aa-jv wrote: post #89
jacquesm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You couldn't be more wrong about that.

Better a diplomat than a warmonger. Lets hope there are saner heads in Finland as such methods become more and more relevant.

Well, there is a bit of a problem. Ukraine has shown the reality of dealing with Russia and unfortunately landmines are back on the menu. Yes, it would be much better if we didn't need to defend from aggressors. But if you tie your own army one hand behind their backs then they will lose for sure. This about war, not Oxford boxing rules, and if one side commits one human rights violation after the other it would be great if you could keep the high ground but there are practical limits to that.

Note the incredible restraint of Ukrainians troops in dealing with Russian civilians and captured Russian military. But that does not translate into 'let's handicap our own forces'.

The warmongers are on the other side of the border. Europe is just reacting to this and the states that have rescinded the landmine ban are all directly in the line of fire.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#92

Post by throwaway2037 »

fwipsy wrote: post #56
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. However, you get insane push back the second you start to mention veganism. And yes, that is a luxury and there large parts of the world where that's not an option, but if you're reading this comment you probably could survive without eating meat.

Hot take: people get angry about veganism because they suspect, deep down, that vegans are right and feel guilty about eating meat. (Not taking the moral high ground here - I have put approximately zero effort into reducing meat intake at all.)

The real problem with veganism is that you are a social outcast around normies. That was the biggest problem that I had. Also, veganism is essentially a "fundamentalist" way of thinking -- all or nothing. Now, I advocate for people to experiment with eating less meat and animal products, not zero. Even if people cut the amount of meat they ate by 20%, it would have a huge environmental impact. Also, the type of meat you eat also has a large environmental impact: Consider beef vs chicken.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#93

Post by Pay08 »

nickff wrote: post #60
jampekka wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

161 countries are still in the Ottawa Treaty, including all European countries except the ones who withdrew. I have hard time seeing how this treaty would have much effect on wartime alliances. But if that's the case, what are "all the force multipliers"? Chemical weapons? Biological weapons? What share of the GDP for defence?

It's nice that so many countries are signatories, but the countries which are currently involved in significant conflicts, have been, or are likely to be, are all non-signatories, have withdrawn, or are not abiding by their commitment. I'm not sure how much it matters that many non-warring countries are signatories to the convention, unless you think the Ottawa Treaty has actually prevented one or more conflicts (whi…

The main problem with biological and chemical weapons isn't their effectiveness (or lack thereof), but the impossibility of controlling them.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#94

Post by Pay08 »

razakel wrote: post #76
Synaesthesia wrote: post #73

Land-mines, particularly anti-personnel land minds are just horrible weapons. They should be banned.

They've been banned since 1997, though Lithuania has withdrawn and Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Finland plan to.

Ukraine has withdrawn as well.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#96

Post by consumer451 »

aa-jv wrote: post #89
jacquesm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You couldn't be more wrong about that.

Better a diplomat than a warmonger. Lets hope there are saner heads in Finland as such methods become more and more relevant.

> Better a diplomat than a warmonger.

I am genuinely curious what you mean by this exactly? Do you see Finland as being led by warmongers?

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#97

Post by shevy-java »

Some have statues of rats.

Others have statues of cats.

And others have statues of a mad clown king. To each their own.

We here have a few old statues mostly from people who won in "glorious wars". While the statues look ok (though, aged), at one point in time I wondered why we glorify these folks. I then concluded that statues showing humans is a rather outdated concept, IMO. Some of this is history though, but it is still outdated.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#98

Post by aa-jv »

jacquesm wrote: post #91
aa-jv wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better a diplomat than a warmonger. Lets hope there are saner heads in Finland as such methods become more and more relevant.

Well, there is a bit of a problem. Ukraine has shown the reality of dealing with Russia and unfortunately landmines are back on the menu. Yes, it would be much better if we didn't need to defend from aggressors. But if you tie your own army one hand behind their backs then they will lose for sure. This about war, not Oxford boxing rules, and if one side commits one human rights violation after the other it would be g…

Ukraine also showed the world how to utterly fail at finding diplomatic solutions to ones problems.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#99

Post by aa-jv »

consumer451 wrote: post #96
aa-jv wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better a diplomat than a warmonger. Lets hope there are saner heads in Finland as such methods become more and more relevant.

> Better a diplomat than a warmonger. I am genuinely curious what you mean by this exactly? Do you see Finland as being led by warmongers?

I believe that Europe is currently led by warmongers, and yes, that Finland is currently caught in the throes of war profiteering.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#100

Post by consumer451 »

aa-jv wrote: post #99
consumer451 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Better a diplomat than a warmonger. I am genuinely curious what you mean by this exactly? Do you see Finland as being led by warmongers?

I believe that Europe is currently led by warmongers, and yes, that Finland is currently caught in the throes of war profiteering.

Wow. Do you believe that Russia is currently led my warmongers?
Post reply on HN