And I can assure you, every one of them is grateful for the opportunity to serve. Red Cross volunteers have taught me lessons about the durability of human hope and faith amid irrational suffering. I've seen great hearts in tired bodies, driven past exhaustion to bring comfort to strangers. The many humanitarian services of the American Red Cross include meeting the needs of victims of 60,000 disasters each year, training 11 million people a year in lifesaving health and safety courses, collecting, testing and distributing one-half of America's blood supply, and transmitting 4,000 emergency messages daily between members of our Armed Forces and their families. Indeed, it is this enduring commitment that has inspired the Red Cross to declare its own war, on landmines.
Modern combat is no longer a contest between uniformed armies on remote battlefields.
Combatants in many of these clashes have worn street clothes and waged guerrilla and terrorist warfare in the midst of populated areas, placing civilians on the front lines and turning children into casualties. And perhaps most tragic of all are those killed or mutilated by weapons long after hostilities have ended. This is the deadly legacy of land mines. It is a tragic fact that today there are more than 120 million land mines strewn in trees and pastures, fields and villages in 70 countries, awaiting the unwary touch of a farmer, a traveler, a child attracted by the glint of metal. The detachment that comes from mileage and time zones is understandable, but it is not justifiable.