In at least 20 countries, children are involved in warfare. Many are front-line combatants, while others serve as guards, porters, cooks or messengers. Girls may be expected not only to fight, but also subject to sexual exploitation. While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as eight years old.
I was deeply troubled to learn that in at least eight countries, the United States is providing military assistance to foreign governments that either recruit and use children in their armed forces, or support militia groups that use child soldiers. Such assistance implicates our own government in this terrible crime.
I urge you to support the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007, bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Durbin and Brownback. This important bill would restrict U.S. military assistance to foreign governments involved in the recruitment or use of child soldiers. Governments would be eligible only for military assistance to address the issue of child soldiers and otherwise professionalize their armed forces until the problem is remedied.
This important bill will help ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are not used to finance the exploitation of children in armed conflict, and that U.S. weapons do not end up in the hands of children.
J.P. Ballew
Class of ’87