UN Arms Trade Treaty is back!?

[gtmtnbiker98]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/us-arms-treaty-un-idUSBRE8A627J20121107

Wow, that didn't take very long. Can't wait to see what the next four years behold.

[TGS]

Just too funny.

I like how Bush signed an agreement to prohibit the US from giving military aid to countries using children soldiers.....yet Obama has suspended it each year. Like, priorities dude. Priorities. Stop arming children soldiers if you actually care about international arms deals being used nefariously.

[G60]

Requires 2/3 of the Senate. Meaning: this will never happen, but good for scaring up donations.

[fuse]

Just too funny.

I like how Bush signed an agreement to prohibit the US from giving military aid to countries using children soldiers.....yet Obama has suspended it each year. Like, priorities dude. Priorities. Stop arming children soldiers if you actually care about international arms deals being used nefariously.

Holy awesome. Got a link or something?

[Spr1]

Requires 2/3 of the Senate. Meaning: this will never happen, but good for scaring up donations.

However, I would still like to be able to buy HK's

[Josh Runkle]

Just too funny.

I like how Bush signed an agreement to prohibit the US from giving military aid to countries using children soldiers.....yet Obama has suspended it each year. Like, priorities dude. Priorities. Stop arming children soldiers if you actually care about international arms deals being used nefariously.

I second. I'm really interested to read a story on this.

[Chemsoldier]

Just too funny.

I like how Bush signed an agreement to prohibit the US from giving military aid to countries using children soldiers.....yet Obama has suspended it each year. Like, priorities dude. Priorities. Stop arming children soldiers if you actually care about international arms deals being used nefariously.

Yet Obama is the one who started all the counter-LRA efforts, targeting the most infamous users of child soldiers. I would also point out that the child soldier definition used by the UN puts the US on the list of offenders for allowing 17 1/2 year olds into uniform with their parents permission, and the UK who allows people as young as 16 to join so long as they do not deploy till 18. The philosophically sympathetic to the UN group Amnesty International, that bastion of hippiedom, also criticizes us for the Civil Air Patrol and JROTC.

So you want to fight the LRA, who conspripts 12 year olds through horror and atrocity. But you dont want to commit entire Brigades of US troops to the fight. So you have to do it with USSF and their proxies. Those proxies are the militaries of dirt poor African countries where the western idea of age of majority is a joke. So a group of Green Berets are to train and equip a particular nation's military to fight the LRA, but that military allows 16 or 17 year olds to volunatarily join their military....and that nation already lets people that age work in factories, get married, etc. I dont know if getting involved in this fight makes sense for us, but suspending the the agreement has a purpose within the confines of interventionist foreign policy

[TGS]

Yet Obama is the one who started all the counter-LRA efforts, targeting the most infamous users of child soldiers. I would also point out that the child soldier definition used by the UN puts the US on the list of offenders for allowing 17 1/2 year olds into uniform with their parents permission, and the UK who allows people as young as 16 to join so long as they do not deploy till 18. The philosophically sympathetic to the UN group Amnesty International, that bastion of hippiedom, also criticizes us for the Civil Air Patrol and JROTC.

So you want to fight the LRA, who conspripts 12 year olds through horror and atrocity. But you dont want to commit entire Brigades of US troops to the fight. So you have to do it with USSF and their proxies. Those proxies are the militaries of dirt poor African countries where the western idea of age of majority is a joke. So a group of Green Berets are to train and equip a particular nation's military to fight the LRA, but that military allows 16 or 17 year olds to volunatarily join their military....and that nation already lets people that age work in factories, get married, etc.

Thank you for putting it into perspective.

For anyone who's interested:
Foreign Policy: Obama Waives Sanction on Countries that Use Child Soldiers (http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/01/obama_waives_sanctions_on_countries_that_use_child _soldiers)

[CMG]

In Syria, we have seen the death toll rise well over 30,000, with weapons and ammunition pouring in the country for months now," he said. "We need a treaty that will set tough rules to control the arms trade, that will save lives and truly make the world a better place"

I like how they bring up Syria but no mention of Rwanda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Preparations_for_the_genocide) where the majority of the killing was done by machete.

[G60]

This is what we really need to worry about: Michael Bloomberg: http://t.co/J13jyfk6

[Kyle Reese]

I like how they bring up Syria but no mention of Rwanda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Preparations_for_the_genocide) where the majority of the killing was done by machete.

Syria?

Russia will continue to sell them arms, any UN treaty / resolution be damned.

[Mjolnir]

Syria?

Russia will continue to sell them arms, any UN treaty / resolution be damned.

Yeah, support Al Qaeda destroying yet another nation. If I could I would arm Syria and I wish they'd kill EVERY foreign soldier on their soil.

This law is about making one party in a conflict defenseless- the party that is rejecting IMF loans, repudiating the dollar as their reserve currency or resisting the 7 Sisters from having sole rights to their oil and natural gas reserves or perhaps their land would make a nice pipeline on the cheap.

No thanks.

[TCinVA]

Like most of what comes out of the UN it's garbage that doesn't come close to accomplishing what it says it does. The expected product of a group comprised of politicians and crooks.

...but I repeat myself.

[dbateman]

Guys don't get complacent, the UN is the biggest threat to freedom we will face in our life time.

[BLR]

Great time to write your Congressman....

I took the time yesterday.

[Kyle Reese]

Yeah, support Al Qaeda destroying yet another nation. If I could I would arm Syria and I wish they'd kill EVERY foreign soldier on their soil.

This law is about making one party in a conflict defenseless- the party that is rejecting IMF loans, repudiating the dollar as their reserve currency or resisting the 7 Sisters from having sole rights to their oil and natural gas reserves or perhaps their land would make a nice pipeline on the cheap.

No thanks.

There are no "good guys" in the current Syrian conflict. Assad's Alawite regime vs home grown and foreign fighters (many of whom have ties to AQ)? Maybe Assad can get on his bat phone to his benefactors in Tehran and ask for their help.

The Syrian armed forces and the various warring factions there can chop each other into dog food for all I care.

[Nephrology]

There are no "good guys" in the current Syrian conflict. Assad's Alawite regime vs home grown and foreign fighters (many of whom have ties to AQ)? Maybe Assad can get on his bat phone to his benefactors in Tehran and ask for their help.

The Syrian armed forces and the various warring factions there can chop each other into dog food for all I care.

Unfortunately the civilians are paying an incredible toll - even medical staff and medical facilities are being targeted.

Here is some on-the-ground footage of exactly that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWSOIXS5o3c

WARNING - the above is INCREDIBLY violent and really disturbing. I have seen my fair share of death in a hospital setting firsthand but nothing prepared me for the video. If you do not want to see maimed and murdered children, do not click on the above. Seriously.

[Kyle Reese]

Unfortunately the civilians are paying an incredible toll - even medical staff and medical facilities are being targeted.

Here is some on-the-ground footage of exactly that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWSOIXS5o3c

WARNING - the above is INCREDIBLY violent and really disturbing. I have seen my fair share of death in a hospital setting firsthand but nothing prepared me for the video. If you do not want to see maimed and murdered children, do not click on the above. Seriously.

Understood. I should have worded my thoughts a little better. I was referring to the foreign jihadist elements/Assad's military only.