Reply #22: The Wh information explains the reasons very well [View All]

...Chad gets a waiver because it has cooperated with the UN fully on the issue, has turned over underage military recruits, and has no reported new underage recruits in the past year.

The DRC gets a partial waiver. The situation there sounds more complex and fragmented, and the UN made limited progress. The partial waiver consists of zero support in armaments and aid, but continued support in training their military toward professionalism, the rule of law, the Geneva Convention protocols, and general support of civil society and human rights. Its the least we can do, and it is worth doing (though, like many other similar things, its hard to see how we get anything out of it).

Yemen is a special case of a screwed up failing country where we are mired in a questionable "war on terror". Considering all that is going on there, its hard to say whether we should be in farther or all the way out, but the recruitment of children is a small issue (unfortunately), with all the factions and failure going on. I suspect it will wind up like Afghanistan eventually, where the floor falls out from under civil society and war becomes general, whatever we do or don't do.