After just prosecuting Canadian child soldier Omar Khadr for war crimes, is it any wonder that Obama isn't trying to stop the use of child soldiers. Peacenik fully expects the age for joining the U.S. Military to soon drop to say 10 or 12 years of age. I mean if you can sentence a 10 year old to life in prison, they should be able to handle a couple of tours of duty in Afghanistan. The civilized world is in full retreat, and the U.S.A is leading the way.Obama administration decides to continue funding to Chad, Yemen, Sudan and DRC though they use children in armed forces.
In a decision critics say has undermined a powerful new law, the United States has decided to turn a blind eye to four countries that use child soldiers in their armed forces.
![[Rebel groups like Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement, shown in this video frame, use child soldiers. The United States will exempt four governments from penalties for doing so. (Al-Jazeera)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/child_soldier.jpg "child_soldier.jpg")
Rebel groups like Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement, shown in this video frame, use child soldiers. The United States will exempt four governments from penalties for doing so. (Al-Jazeera)
In a
brief and little-noticed announcement on Monday, the White House said Barack Obama, the president, had decided to exempt Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and Yemen from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, which
prohibits funding for foreign governments' militaries if they recruit or use child soldiers.
On Thursday, Foreign Policy magazine posted online a nine-page memo from Obama to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, that linked the continuation of funding to US counterterrorism efforts in some of those countries.
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