Why Did The U.S. Turn A Blind Eye On The Use Of Child Soldiers By South Sudan

UNICEF says 15,000 child soldiers have fought in the two-year civil war [Katy Migiro/Reuters]

Nick Turse, The Intercept: New Nation. Long War

Hillary Clinton’s State Department Gave South Sudan’s Military a Pass for Its Child Soldiers.

MET A FEW of them in the town of Pibor last year. These battle-tested veterans had just completed two or three years of military service. They told me about the rigors of a soldier’s life, about toting AK-47s, about the circumstances that led them to take up arms. In the United States, not one of these soldiers would have met the age requirements to enlist in the Army. None were older than 16.

Rebel forces in southern Sudan began using child soldiers long before seceding from Sudan in 2011. The United States, on the other hand, passed a law in 2008 that banned providing military assistance to nations that use child soldiers. The law was called the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, or CSPA, but after South Sudan’s independence, the White House issued annual waivers that kept aid flowing to the world’s newest nation despite its use of child soldiers. President Obama stated in 2012 that the waiver that year was in “the national interest of the United States.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The focus of this article is on Hillary Clinton, but it is the White House .... specifically President Obama .... who is the main architect of this policy and its outcome.