If I could single out one of the most odious practices in war, I guess it would be the use of children as soldiers like many African countries do to augment their dwindling male populations. And probably the most liberal way to end the scourge would probably be to cut off US taxpayer dollars to countries who subscribe to the practice. But, our Nobel peace prize winning president won’t even take that simple measure according to Foreign Policy Magazine;
Last week Obama issued a presidential memorandum waiving penalties under the Child Soldiers Protection Act of 2008 for Libya, South Sudan and Yemen, penalties that Congress put in place to prevent U.S. arms sales to countries determined by the State Department to be the worst abusers of child soldiers in their militaries. The president also partially waived sanctions against the Democratic Republic of Congo to allow some military training and arms sales to that country.
Human rights advocates saw the waivers as harmful to the goal of using U.S. influence to urge countries that receive military assistance to move away from using child soldiers and contradictory to the rhetoric Obama used in his speech.
“After such a strong statement against the exploitation of children, it seems bizarre that Obama would give a pass to countries using children in their armed forces and using U.S. tax money to do that,” said Jesse Eaves, the senior policy advisor for child protection at World Vision.
Of course, that’s more of that “smart diplomacy” we heard so much about during the 2008 campaign, and we’ve seen it in practice around the world while we become an international punchline for being softies and push-overs. Somehow, this administration thinks that by continuing to pay these rogue countries for continuing the vile practice, it will change their behavior. Think about how well that has worked out in our recent history.
There s a reason for that. Not necessarily a good reason. A lot of countries consider soldiers under 18 and in some cases 21 to be “child soldiers.” We are avoiding the child soldier debate more or less on the same lines we are avoiding the Land-mine debate. The fear is that our legitimate and very reasonable use of land-mines and young-men and women will be next of the block if we attack the illegitimate use of mines and children.
Is this wise? I don’t think so. I think anyone who matters can tell the difference between a 14 year old handed an AK and told to kill and a 18 year old given extensive training and under real military discipline.
That said, this is a partial explanation as to why the US has not yet fully engaged on this subject.
What should anyone expect from the “dear leader”? For him to do the right thing? For him to punish a brother muslim? Sheesh.
We are not talking about cultural differences here between us and those who consider that children become adults at age 12. We are talking about 10-year olds being kidnapped and forced to fight (often against their own families) or die.
No, this has nothing to do with the maturity of a 20-year old. This is one of the worst human rights abuses being practiced today and certainly not something my tax dollars should be supporting.
Disgusting. There simply is no excuse for it. I shudder at the thought that a friend of mine who actually was one of those conscripted children, managed to survive, and is now a US citizen is also contributing, through his tax dollars, to the practice. No one should ever be asked to do that.
No suprise here,
Obama policy. Say one thing, get votes. Do another, get votes.
Our tax dollars fund a lot of things we don’t believe in. The nice part of that is we seem to have no ability to stop it any more. /sarc off
@ 3 OWB, there is a large community of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” here in Phoenix. Being a committee member for “Catholic Charities” I’ve seen many presentations by these young men, we helped them refurbish a mission we closed years ago so they could have their own church/community center. To hear first hand accounts of these boys, being forced to fight at an age when I was trying to figure out what “Mr. Happy” was for, was heart breaking. Their internal strength is amazing.
Yet another topic that the MSM will not touch with a 10 foot pole. I agree with OWB 100% on this. It sickens me that our tax dollars are going to countries that practice that.
If this was the Bush administration there would be howls of derision from the left on this topic regarding “war crimes” for selling weapons to those who use children this way.
It’s an abhorrent practice as everyone here has stated, I have no problem slamming republicans, independents, or democrats when they are out of line. It would be good if everyone worked the same way left and right.
VOV, not only howls of derision, but demands for impeachment.
I wonder if this would even cross the President’s desk. Since Department of State dictates the sales to the countries, it seems to me that DoS would waiver or not, just as they do with importation. If anyone higher than Hillary sees the paperwork, i would be surprised.
Even S&S is carrying this one:
http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/obama-waives-sanctions-on-countries-that-use-child-soldiers-1.191550
Obama waives sanctions on countries that use child soldiers
“WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama issued a new executive order last week to fight human trafficking, touting his administration’s handling of the issue.
“When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed — that’s slavery,” Obama said in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative. “It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world. Now, as a nation, we’ve long rejected such cruelty.”
But for the third year in a row, Obama has waived almost all U.S. sanctions that would punish certain countries that use child soldiers, upsetting many in the human rights community.
Last week Obama issued a presidential memorandum waiving penalties under the Child Soldiers Protection Act of 2008 for Libya, South Sudan and Yemen, penalties that Congress put in place to prevent U.S. arms sales to countries determined by the State Department to be the worst abusers of child soldiers in their militaries. The president also partially waived sanctions against the Democratic Republic of Congo to allow some military training and arms sales to that country.
Human rights advocates saw the waivers as harmful to the goal of using U.S. influence to urge countries that receive military assistance to move away from using child soldiers and contradictory to the rhetoric Obama used in his speech.”
UpNorth, indeed you are correct. I remember seeing all those impeach Bush stickers and thinking they were pretty stupid. If you put an impeach Obama sticker on your car for reasons like this you will be accused of being a racist.
Racism is the only retort from weak-minded fools who can’t argue the issue thus they must denigrate the messenger as the truth of the message is much more difficult to refute. By saying you hate the African American President based on color is an attempt to invalidate your entire argument.
Both sides have their buzz words for attacking the messenger but the left seems to have elevated this from and art form to a science in my opinion. Not that my opinion has any more merit than any others.
Thanks for your publication. I also feel that laptop computers are becoming more and more popular nowadays, and now are usually the only form of computer utilized in a household. The reason is that at the same time that they are becoming more and more very affordable, their processing power keeps growing to the point where they are as highly effective as desktop computers from just a few years back.