One of my classmates, Margaret Falcon, wrote an interesting post "Borders and Drug Trafficking". After reading her post, I have to agree with Margaret s claim that there must be something done to control the violence and drug trafficking around the border towns.
I am actually from El Paso, Texas, which is the border town to Juarez, Mexico. Juarez is considered to be the main entry port for illegal drugs into the United States. The violence and death rates are definitely rising and posing a threat to citizens in both sides of the border not just in Mexico. There was a case where a man was kidnapped in El Paso and was taken back across the border by alleged drug dealers. A ransom had to be paid before he was given back to his family 2 weeks later. There is a massive drug war being hosted in Mexico where cartels are competing for the drug routes to the United States. These drug traffickers are more powerful than people think and it has showed. In July 2010 the firs successful car bombing by a drug carted in the north of Mexico brought new loads of terror. I do agree with Margaret that we might not be able to stop drugs from entering our border. Despite the efforts being made by both U.S and Mexico to strengthen civilian law enforcement institutions, I believe that even more must be done to lower the violence. Our Government must be very careful and not underestimate the power that these drugs cartels have as they have already made it clear that they can execute terrorist attacks in the form of car bombings. I believe that this poses a huge threat to our national security and our government must figure our a cautious way to deal with this issue before it is too late.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
CHILDREN AT WAR
I found an interesting story on Fox News.
As we all know there are still extremist countries around the globe that utilize child soldiers. Some of these nations include Somalia, Republic of Congo, Yemen, and Chad. In an attempt to stop this, President Bush signed the Child Soldier Prevention Act in 2008 while still in office. As a penalty, the United States does not provide military assistance as well as tax dollar financing to any of these countries if they are still using children in war.
To my amazement i found that President Obama waived the penalties to Congo, Yemen, Chad,and Sudan. The Act has not been in effect for a year and exceptions are already being made. How do we expect to stop child soldiers by waiving penalties to these countries? Why did we even make this law if the president can simply waive it at his will is my question. It also seems the this decision has been carried out with a sense of quietness as there was no justification given in the presidents decision for waving the penalties. But, members of his administration stated that these penalties would do "more harm than good". The administration also believes that the alleged countries need more time to excrete their extreme practices. I don't believe that this is the case with these countries. Children are not only more vulnerable in combat but they can be traumatized much easier than an older soldier.These kids are being trained from a very young age to kill and be violent. As a result, when they grow older they become immune to this violent way of life and they tend to implement these extreme practices like it was once done to them. I don't know about you but the thought of being in combat against a child is just so wrong.
I believe the United States should find a more efficient way of dealing with these countries in manners that don't complicate the situation. Not giving these countries aid will not help the situation either because countries like Yemen will be forced to use their child soldiers because they lack funds and militia. I think that we should focus on developing these countries legitimate armies that don't use child soldiers.
As we all know there are still extremist countries around the globe that utilize child soldiers. Some of these nations include Somalia, Republic of Congo, Yemen, and Chad. In an attempt to stop this, President Bush signed the Child Soldier Prevention Act in 2008 while still in office. As a penalty, the United States does not provide military assistance as well as tax dollar financing to any of these countries if they are still using children in war.
To my amazement i found that President Obama waived the penalties to Congo, Yemen, Chad,and Sudan. The Act has not been in effect for a year and exceptions are already being made. How do we expect to stop child soldiers by waiving penalties to these countries? Why did we even make this law if the president can simply waive it at his will is my question. It also seems the this decision has been carried out with a sense of quietness as there was no justification given in the presidents decision for waving the penalties. But, members of his administration stated that these penalties would do "more harm than good". The administration also believes that the alleged countries need more time to excrete their extreme practices. I don't believe that this is the case with these countries. Children are not only more vulnerable in combat but they can be traumatized much easier than an older soldier.These kids are being trained from a very young age to kill and be violent. As a result, when they grow older they become immune to this violent way of life and they tend to implement these extreme practices like it was once done to them. I don't know about you but the thought of being in combat against a child is just so wrong.
I believe the United States should find a more efficient way of dealing with these countries in manners that don't complicate the situation. Not giving these countries aid will not help the situation either because countries like Yemen will be forced to use their child soldiers because they lack funds and militia. I think that we should focus on developing these countries legitimate armies that don't use child soldiers.
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