US paying for 9 year olds to carry machine guns....Does this outrage you???

Please read the article and watch the video and see that my blog title is not rhetoric.  This was the topic for our Junior World Affairs Council at my school this year.  We should not be complicit in financing conflicts where 9 year olds serve in military positions in the open and with common knowledge in the international community....Just my opinion...(see video the accompanies the story below)

NYTIMES: Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia

""It is well known that Somalia’s radical Islamist insurgents are plucking children off soccer fields and turning them into fighters. But Awil is not a rebel. He is working for Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, a critical piece of the American counterterrorism strategy in the Horn of Africa.

According to Somali human rights groups and United Nations officials, the Somali government, which relies on assistance from the West to survive, is fielding hundreds of children or more on the front lines, some as young as 9.
Child soldiers are deployed across the globe, but according to the United Nations, the Somali government is among the “most persistent violators” of sending children into war, finding itself on a list with notorious rebel groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Somali government officials concede that they have not done the proper vetting. Officials also revealed that the United States government was helping pay their soldiers, an arrangement American officials confirmed, raising the possibility that the wages for some of these child combatants may have come from American taxpayers.""

Click HERE for Video of Child Soldiers TODAY "working" in Somalia---VERY COMPELLING and SAD to watch...