Sri Lanka
 

Guess the effects of the Tsunami bringing the nation together didn't last long:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6192217.stm

Who kidnaps 21 children?

Terrorism has no feelings or friends. That country has been infested with terrorism for at least 3 decades and it also spills over to neighbor, India.

:tsk:

The Tamil Tigers has a history of recruiting/kidnapping children for their army. Sometimes its with the cooperation of the local authorities. Officials would line up kids at school and identify candidates during the day. At night the Tigers would come and take them away.

The Tigers are accused of extorting money from the Sri Lankan community in Toronto and no doubt elsewhere as well. A nasty organization.

The article seems to imply that this stuff is being done by both sides.

This reminds me of the movie "Blood Diamond" that I saw last week. It shows how they used child soldiers in the civil war in Siera Leone.

Not to make this into a political debate, but call your local congressman or write a letter. This worldwide situation could be improved by a simple treaty....

United States Opposition Jeopardizes Global Ban on Child Soldiers

The problem is all nations may not agree that 18 is the "adult" age, 500 years ago 12 was damn close to adult. It would be easier to say no solider under 16 then to say all over 18.

Plus I find it convenient that the "world" doesn't want the US involved, accept where applicable.

I've come to the simple conclusion that those in Washington make every effort to oppose anything that encourages peace and harmony in the world. I think perhaps they simply are in favor of population control and encouraging wars all across the world not only helps this issue, but also makes the US military industrial complex quite a bit of dough as they are the #1 supplier of arms worldwide.

Another example of this is our government's oppostion to the land-mine treaty. Some simple research on that one turns up the fact that most land-mines are produced in the US and it is a big industry.

The world was at war long before the US came into the picture.