This is certainly not a vote getter, this permitting Democratic Congo, Chad, Sudan and our heroic ally Yemen to conscript children as young as 14--and who really knows whether they aren't even younger--to fight.
The story is by Brian Knowlton, and it is in the New York Times. Headline: "No U.S. Sanctions on Four Countries With Child Soldiers." The findings that these governments, such as they are, engage in "human trafficking" was actually not a shock to the system. What is a shock is that, under terms of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, President Obama has written Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he finds it in "the national interest" to continue giving military aid to these governments. I don't understand why it's the boss informing his underling.
But what I really don't grasp: is it really true that American military assistance is actually being shipped to the first three of these regimes?