landmines

Human ingenuity gave us the wheel, electricity, and space travel. It also gave us the brilliant idea of burying explosives that blow somebody’s legs off decades after a war ends. From the steel traps of 1823 to Confederate General Gabriel Rains’s landmines in 1862, mankind has perfected the art of mechanical surprises. During my deployments to Bosnia, Albania, and Kosovo, stepping off a cleared road could be deadlier than enemy gunfire. The war was over, but nobody told the landmines. Perhaps the greatest failure of human intelligence isn’t what we’ve invented, but our inability to anticipate the consequences.