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For 12 years, the United States has refused to ban a arm that kills and mutilates innocent women, men and children still in peacetime. The clock has come for the world’s most powerful high-tech military to make up its low-tech stockpile of ten million antipersonnel landmines.

Today there are millions of mines buried in over 80 countries, and over 160 million more stored in arsenals waiting to go in the ground.

hese indiscriminate devices lay dormant until detonated by something living – a child walking to school, a husbandman or grazing livestock.One victim at a time, these ‘weapons of mass destruction in slow motion’ have killed in amount more people than nuclear, chemical and biological weapons combined.If they don’t get immediate death, they maim and blind their victims.

Perhaps cruelest of all, these hidden killers never know peace.Landmines continue to inflict health, economic and environmental damage long after conflicts end, treaties are signed, and soldiers go home.

For over 30 years, I have lived in the landmine heartland of the world. I have advocated with governments and visited with hundreds of wounded survivors in the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America, from Cambodia and Vietnam to Pakistan, Bosnia and Colombia. In my turn with the International Effort to Ban Landmines and Survivor Corps, I have personally witnessed the heartbreaking consequences for those striving to master the damage wrought on their bodies, their lives and their families.

Ten days ago today the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force, mandating a complete ban of the weapon, the end of stockpiles, clearing of minefields, and help to the victims.Most of the world – 156 nations – have signed.Over 44 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed, and casualty rates have plunged from approximately 25,000 to 5,000 per year. All NATO allies have abandoned this antiquated weapon, while the United States stands outside the pact with countries such as Cuba, Pakistan, China, North Korea and Iran.

Why is the United States sitting on the sidelines clinging to this outdated weapon? Because the Pentagon says it might want to use them someday, even though U.S. forces haven’t deployed mines in about 20 years. But even Iraq and Afghanistan have prohibited the use of landmines. Since the Mine Ban Treaty prohibits all its members from aiding and abetting the channel or use of mines, the United States can’t even discuss plans for their use with coalition allies, let alone with Baghdad or Kabul.

The greater irony is that mines do not yet do the job.An International Red Cross-Red Crescent study endorsed by 50 high ranking military figures from 20 countries found that landmines played no significant part in the result of 26 conflicts examined. The appalling suffering and waste caused by landmines far outweigh their military utility.

In Jordan, my former husband King Hussein was the first Mideast leader to know that landmines do not provide security, but instead threaten innocent civilians and hinder development.In 1993 he called for a mine-free Jordan Valley by 2000. Sadly, he did not go to see this goal realized, but we successfully led Jordan to mark the Mine Ban Treaty in 1998 and completed the destruction of our stock of over 92,000 antipersonnel mines in 2003.

To its credit, the United States is the leading funder of mine clearance globally, spending about a million dollars in over 47 countries, but it hasn’t managed to demolish its own stash.Why not acknowledge that these tiny cheap explosives do not win wars? Technology has also advanced beyond minefields to protect borders or bases.

An Obama administration that seeks to reassert U.S. leadership on issues of humanitarian law and arms control should assume this chance to house the Mine Ban Treaty and end the use of these insidious weapons for good. The earth is wait for decisive leadership from Washington.

The conflict against landmines is an inherent component of the struggle for peace worldwide.War-torn societies can never be rebuilt if people proceed to care for their lives with every step they take.Just as President Woodrow Wilson, another Nobel laureate, decided to forever ban the use of poison gas in 1925, perhaps President Obama, as he heads to Oslo to take his Nobel Prize for Peace, will give the U.S. to link the world effort to ban landmines.I can recall of no greater gift to succeeding generations.

Her Majesty Queen Noor is an adviser to the International Movement to Ban Landmines and supporter of Survivor Corps, helping war victims rebuild their lives.