Obama waives prohibition on Child Soldiers in Sudan

Foreign Policy is not my area of expertise and I will not pretend it is. However, there is something that has surfaced that is rather disturbing. It is something that I believe that everyone can, and should, make a judgement on.

Sudan is at a turning point. It will either break into a civil war dividing the country or possibly fall into the type of tribal religious warfare seen in Uganda. No Alice Lawkena or Joseph Kony is needed to help prod this troubled nation into pure despotism. I invite you to read Child, Victim, Soldier by Donald Dunson if you are not familiar with the atrocities committed by men transforming children into killers.

The President Ok’s continued recruiting of Child Soldiers

This took us totally by surprise and was a complete shock to everyone working in the field - Jesse Eaves policy advisor at World Vision

In order for the Sudan to continue to receive funding from the US there were stipulations. They needed to stop recruiting child soldiers for the Southern Ugandan Army. However, because so much of their forces are made up of the innocent they were not able to comply on time. But no worries, instead of cutting their funding or putting pressure on the southern army, the President has taken it upon himself to waive the sanctions against countries using child soldiers. The Child Soldier Protection Act was originally passed in 2008 under the leadership of the guy that Kanye West said “didn’t care” about black people.(More on this and official State Dept Report below) For now, the document is available on the White House website here. If that gets removed you can click the picture below

Reports from the State Department

The law allows for proffesionalization of these militaries, so these waivers are really disappointing and add insult to injury - Rachel Stohl Associate Fellow at Chatham House (DC)

In the June 2010 report on Human Trafficking Sudan is specifically named (pg 11) as an area that is red-flagged for using Child Soldiers and also as an area that will not receive any funding if the practice of recruiting isnt stopped. It also states that the only exception will be by a Presidential National Interest Waiver. Well, they got it. And Children can be trained to kill for at least another year. Or possibly indefinitely.

Why?

This is the first year it’s being enacted, so to waive everyone right out of the gate sends exactly the wrong message – Jo Becker Advocacy Director of Children’s Rights at Human Rights Watch

Why would the White House issue any exemptions to the 2008 Child Soldier Prevention Act? The White House has responded by saying that this is a one year waiver (much like the one year waivers on 1.2 million Americans being able to keep their health care). But the main justification was (get ready for this) is that they couldn’t guarantee that the offending countries would abide by the rules. So in other words, the countries we support can recruit the child soldiers because the bad guy(s) is doing it anyways.

On this area of such a terrible topic I can only hypothesize as to how and why an administration could view innocent children as potential fighters for any given cause. But maybe this is more than a hypothesis; maybe the writing is, or was, on the wall. Leftists throughout history have always looked to incorporate children into their affairs-can you think of a time that they havent? So this is the natural tendencies of men who are the true believers of the ends justifying the means.

Rahm’s Pledge for Childrens’ Compulsory Service

Obama Youth Brigade