Kids in combat? Hey, why not?

Ain't no big deal to El Presidente, as noted here in Turtle Bay and Beyond:

The Washington Times reported the Obama administration waived sanctions that would prevent countries from receiving foreign aid for violating the Child-Soldier Prevention Act. Obama who co-sponsored the legislation in 2008 as an Illinois senator, has now permitted aid to countries that have used children as young as 11 to fight under a “national interest” exclusion within the legislation.

The 2012 State Departments “Trafficking in Persons” report found seven countries were in violation as having ”recruited and used children younger than 15 as soldiers in their armed forces or government-supported militias.”

This October President Obama will decide again whether he will issue waivers to countries using child-soldiers.

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE1) who authored the House version of the Child-Soldier bill opposed the presidents waivers last October saying it was “an assault on human dignity.”
Fortenberry has introduced new legislation that will “require the president to report to Congress 15 days before issuing another waiver what credible and verifiable steps are being undertaken in countries cited for child-soldiers violations to implement a plan of action to end the recruitment of child soldiers.”

The seven countries cited for using child soldiers are Congo, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. Congo, Sudan and Yemen have been in violation since 2010.
Human Rights Watch estimates countries in violation of the Child-Prevention law will receive $200 million in military assistance from the U.S.

The current law only prohibits funding of military aid but Rep. Fortenberry’s bill would prevent countries in violation from also receiving peacekeeping aid.

Amnesty International estimates 250,000 children are “fighting in active conflicts” worldwide.
Last December President Obama signed an executive order instituting a National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security with a goal to “prevent – and protect women and children from – harm, exploitation, discrimination, and abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence and trafficking in persons, and to hold perpetrators accountable in conflict-affected environments.”

Withholding foreign aid is an integral part of brining about this change.

(Story ends, my comments follow.)

This is the President who was going to close Gitmo because of human rights concerns (it remains open for business), who was against Predator drone attacks (he has increased their use), whose supporters in some quarters pressed for war crime trials against G.W. Bush & Co.

This is also the President who has turned a blind eye to the plight of the demonstrators in Iran whose protests were brutally crushed. This is the President whose State Department assured China that consideration of human rights abuses wouldn't enter into any trade talks. This is the President who sees no problem with Hugo Chavez and his antics (including a sizable presence of Hamas and Hezbollah adherents in his nation). This is also the President who sees no problem with the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian politics or the Syrian revolt..

Closer to home, this is the President whose DOJ refused to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation. This is the President whose DOJ pushed the "Fast and Furious" debacle. This is the President whose big mouth has done nothing for race relations except make them worse.

And G.W. Bush, the GOP and Tea Party adherents are painted as racist bigots with blood on their hands?

There have been a lot of comparisons of Obama's reign to Jimmy Carter's four years in office but one thing has to be said for Old Jimmah Boy and that is he DID push for human rights. Sometimes his acts and words were so screwy you had to wonder what drugs he took. But overall there was no doubt he was actually concerned about the topic.

Obama is an uncaring, amoral, despot wannabe who would cut his grandmother's throat if he thought it would help him stay in office. We The People either elected his ass or set the stage for it by our deeds and apathy of prior years. It's time to wake the hell up, vote him out of office and stay politically active so this doesn't happen again. Hopefully it isn't too late for that.