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Go Home These Are Not Toy Soldiers. They Are Child Soldiers...And...

THE SPINE OCTOBER 28, 2010

These Are Not Toy Soldiers. They Are Child Soldiers...And The Obama Administration Has Given The Countries That Impress Them Another Pass

This is certainly not a vote getter, this permitting Democratic Congo, Chad, Sudan and our heroic ally Yemen to conscript children as young as 14--and who really knows whether they aren't even younger--to fight.

The story is by Brian Knowlton, and it is in the New York Times. Headline: "No U.S. Sanctions on Four Countries With Child Soldiers." The findings that these governments, such as they are, engage in "human trafficking" was actually not a shock to the system. What is a shock is that, under terms of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, President Obama has written Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he finds it in "the national interest" to continue giving military aid to these governments. I don't understand why it's the boss informing his underling.

But what I really don't grasp: is it really true that American military assistance is actually being shipped to the first three of these regimes?

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_Southern_ Sudan army - remember the southern Sudanese Christians that you referred to the other day (http://tinyurl.com/283grtg), heroically resisting Khartoum? Turns out they use child soldiers.... As for Chad and Yemen: certainly. What do human rights matter when you're fighting al Qaeda? You should be entirely comfortable with that.

- SMacEachern2

October 28, 2010 at 7:27pm

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Lets do what we did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam and so on. Lets bomb these countries, kill many children, so others can be motivated to become child soldiers as well shooting at us.

- NR027810

October 29, 2010 at 3:07pm

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