One Nation, Under God, And Its Child Soldiers By C.J. Maloney
(2010-11-18 at 21:48:56 )

One Nation, Under God, and Its Child Soldiers By C.J. Maloney

Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me, but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be
better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and
to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ---- Matthew 18:2-6

My brain did not begin the day thinking about war, the base activity
which Lew Rockwell once termed "the murder end of the state." (Rockwell,
Jr, Llewellyn H. Speaking of Liberty. Auburn, AL, Ludwig Von Mises
Institute, 2003, p.139)

It was thinking about the beach, a far more pleasant activity. This being
modern America, though, it was not long, not even five minutes after our
arrival, when my wife exclaimed an "Oh-my-God." That is when I noticed
she had bought along The New York Times and the war crawled onto the
beach with us.

She handed the paper to me in disgust, as if it were covered in filth.
Shielding my eyes from the sun to read the article I see we have been
arming and training Somalias army, at least the one we favor, and they in
turn are using that money to arm children (some as young as nine) to
fight our War of Terror. As I read further into it I am, needless to say,
dripping in proud patriotism. What fresh hell is this?
We Are Back In Somalia?

I have vague memories of Mark Bowdens Black Hawk Down, a nice tale of our
last disastrous fools errand into Somalia. Granted, we left once but an
Empire never truly leaves anywhere forever. Now, not wanting to put our
own soldiers at risk this go round we are instead using locals as armed
proxies to do our bidding. In this case, that means fighting whomever we
have designated as the enemy for this month and, to make the American
flag unfurl even more proudly in the sun, we are arming and training
Child Soldiers to do it.

All these little boy soldiers are funded and armed by a tentacle of the
Pentagon called AFRICON, which was created in 2008 to make certain that
no matter where in Africa mayhem may erupt an American weapons dealer
will be there to cash in. Some of the latest entries onto the list of our
"allies in the War of Terror" include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Liberia, Uganda,
and now Somalias "Transitional Government." To the informed, that reads
as if the local police department has been funding and arming the local
pimps, drug dealers, Mafia dons, and cutthroats, but our War of Terror
requires these types of compromises, so I am told.

The more historical minded could sit back and wonder what all the (little
bit of an) uproar was about, and would point to the ubiquitous drummer
boys used by both sides during Americas Civil War. The American Use Of
Children In Battle is nothing new; it merely faded as we climbed up the
ladder of civilization. Over the past decades we have come tumbling back
down that ladder and here we are, 2010, knowingly arming children to
Fight on the Empires Behalf. What we are seeing is what one always sees
in a militarized society - the slow devolution away from civilized
behavior and towards what the soldier-scholars call "total war," sparing
no woman or child. It is the American Way.

Of course, all the guilty parties are just shocked to the very core of
their shrunken, shriveled souls that American taxpayers have been (and
are) arming children. "Now, now," the U.S. State Department says to the
Somalia faction that we back, "Do not go using children as soldiers, you
hear?" The head master of our Somalia proxy, a Fagin-like thug named
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, has ordered his army chief to conduct a "full
review" to get to the bottom of things. The United Nations estimates that
up to 25 percent of our allied army in Somalia consists of child
soldiers, so it should not be too tough a task for him to find one of
Our Little Armed Urchins.

While our political masters are upset, no doubt, over the embarrassment
this caused them (for a few moments, until the story quickly faded) do
not think for a moment that this has made them cut off the flow of money,
weapons, and ammo to these child soldiers. Our army of little African
boys is "a critical piece" of our War of Terror in the Horn of Africa,
say the experts.

Plus, consider the cost savings, as doubtless Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates has. Not too long ago he whined that an all-volunteer force was
getting awfully expensive, and according to The New York Times our little
boy soldiers are getting paid, if at all, only $1.50 per day, and that
is quite a bargain by any measure.

So as not to appear too one-sided, it must be admitted that AFRICON has
provided (and is providing) these children with certain job skills that
they can fall back on until the end of their days. For instance little
Ahmed, all of 15-years-old, was sent to Uganda at the age of 12 and
taught by American trainers "how to kill with a knife." His fellow
soldier Awil, now 12-years-old, says he "loves the gun."

And to be fair, while the political grandees around the globe have laws
(specifically the Convention on the Rights of the Child) that prohibit
the use of children in combat, neither the United States or Somalia ever
signed it, so it is a bit of a stretch to expect us to adhere to
something we are not signatories on.

Enough. I stop reading the paper and watch my son running the length of
the shoreline with the ocean waves his backdrop, and I think of all the
children, barely older than he, that part of my every workday is spent
to supply with weapons. I gag on a surge of patriotism.

There are many predictions on this site for the coming demise of the
American empire, and with Gods mercy that blessed day can not come
soon enough.

October 18, 2010

CJ Maloney lives and works in New York City. He blogs for Liberty & Power
on the History News Network website and the DailyKos. His first book
(on Arthurdale, West Virginia during the New Deal) is to be released
by John Wiley and Sons in February 2011.

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