Although child soldiers seem like an abomination to great for any country to allow, the Obama administration just decided to, “leave countless kids stranded on some of the world’s bloodiest battlegrounds”. Just last month, the administration voted to waive the Child Soldiers Prevention Act for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Yemen. This means we will continue to supply, “military aide to those countries, despite their failure to comply with the rules congress passed”. Whitehouse spokesperson, P.J. Crowley said this was a, “strategic decision … that will help countries gradually evolve out of the practice of marshaling kids to the battlefield, rather than isolating them”.
Currently, the United States and Somalia are the only countries who have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It seems that the United States no longer believes in protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. It is yet another grim reminder of, “Washington’s agenda of waging war indefinitely, without boundaries, against an enemy we can no longer really define. The U.S. supports warfare that uses children as weapons, warfare that kills civilian children indiscriminately, warfare that ultimately sends our own children to perish on foreign soil”.
Clearly the United States has a, “warped attitude toward the global rights regime” not to mention the basic moral right we have as a country to protect children’s rights all over the world, right now, not when it is convenient.
Title: White House Says Child Soldiers Are Ok, if They Fight Terrorists
Published: uruknet.info, 11/16/10
Author: Michelle Chen
URL: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=71904&s2=17
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Deseran, Sonoma State University
Student Reaearcher: Jordan Hall, Sonoma State University