September 10, 2008: Yet another benefit of the much reduced levels of violence in Iraq, is the ability to do mine clearance in the central part of the country. The Islamic terrorists were hostile to mine clearing teams (and anything else that made people feel better), so they have generally stayed out of central Iraq for the past few years. Meanwhile, most Saddam era landmines in the Kurdish north, and Shia south, have been cleared. The new clearing effort in central Iraq includes the first use of mine detection dogs. Using their keen sense of smell, dogs trained to detect the unique, but very faint, aroma of land mines (explosives and other components), find the mines, then stand back, and let a human deminer dig it out and dispose of it.