Math Lesson of the Day: The Value of Child Welfare < The Value of a Wii System

This article states why the country with the world's largest number of child soldiers, Burma, has been given a free pass to continue their crimes against humanity. The United Nations Secretary General has identified the Burman Military as one of the world's worst perpetrators of child recruitment, however, after a formal review of Burma's violations, the Security Council's recent report fails even to acknowledge that Burma's army recruits children. This seems odd, considering the Security Council's tough reputation. The Security Council threatened sanctions against the Tamil Tigers for the group's use of child soldiers. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it referred information on violations to sanctions committees and urged the arrest and prosecution of commanders responsible for child recruitment. This group isn't soft, so why is it letting Burma off without anything? The answer is simple: China is a close ally with Burma and their military regime. China isn't exactly known for an impeccable human rights record, so its no surprise that they aren't too concerned with the country's use of child soldiers. It looks as though, because of the UN's dependence on China economically, they won't be doing anything to end the atrocities against the children of Burma. Maybe I'm just a big ole' softy about the Burman children, but I see something morally wrong with ignoring the fact that they are being used to fight a war. I don't understand how our Security Council can sleep at night knowing that they are allowing thousands of kids to die just so they don't risk damaging their relationship with China. I know particuliarly for the US, we trade a lot with China and China loaned us a lot of money recently. And, let's face it, they have a huge army with nuclear missles, but I think we are overestimating their reaction. I'm not saying China will be thrilled with the UN criticizing their ally, but I don't think they'll refuse to trade or go to war with the countries condemning Burma about it. If a bunch of countries banded together, China would lose too much money from not trading and they would have too many countries to go to war with. Even if they decided to do such a thing, they would at least give a warning and a chance for the offending countries to back off Burma. If we didn't want to look so cowardly by obeying China's commands, the UN could ask China beforehand if we put pressure on Burma to stop using child soldiers if they would stop trading with us. If they said yes, we could pretend that we had multiple reasons for not condemning Burma and back off for a little while. We have options. I guess the Security Council is afraid that if they recognize that Burma uses child soldiers and doesn't do anything about it, they would look bad. Not helping these kids is bad enough. Saying there isn't a problem is an even bigger slap in the face.