Child Soldiers of Iraq
When you have twelve-year old boys willing to fight and die against a force of perceived occupiers, how can you possibly hope that your actions will do anything other than sow the seeds of hatred for a brand new generation?
Struggling to lift a Kalashnikov, a 12-year-old with the Mahdi army militia said he could do anything in battle except fly a helicopter.
"Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against a tank," he said. "The Americans are weak. They fight for money and status and squeal like pigs when they die.
I'm not a 'kiddie person'. I don't really care about children much, to be honest... and I certainly don't go around flapping my hands and wailing 'Oh, won't somebody please think of the children??'. But really... this is just heart-breaking. Not only because of the inevitable death that this young child is hurtling towards, but because of the level of hatred that the Coalition actions have managed to nurture. I know that my culture and the Iraqi culture are separated by more than mere geographical distance, but being a kid means that the responsibility of the world isn't yours to burden yet. And yet, the urge to fight against injustice is something that should be kindled.
As I've argued before in this blog, it would be immoral of the Coalition to withdraw now - but the emphasis has to change. The command structure has to change. The authority has to change. Above all, it needs to be the Iraqi people deciding their destiny, even if in the short-term it looks like they're going the wrong way. The thing that is painfully apparent at the moment, is that the Coalition may very well win the short-term battle for stability in Iraq... but in the process they will have lost any chance for a longer, more substantial cordiality between Iraq and the rest of the Western world.
My parents encouraged me to come here," said Malik, a boy of about 14 from the southern Shia city of Diwaniyah.
"I would prefer to live and taste victory but if not my death will be rewarded with spiritual gifts in heaven."
Little Moqtada agreed. "I am young and there is a time for playing football and enjoying myself," he said. "But there is also a time for death."
Struggling to lift a Kalashnikov, a 12-year-old with the Mahdi army militia said he could do anything in battle except fly a helicopter.
"Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against a tank," he said. "The Americans are weak. They fight for money and status and squeal like pigs when they die.
I'm not a 'kiddie person'. I don't really care about children much, to be honest... and I certainly don't go around flapping my hands and wailing 'Oh, won't somebody please think of the children??'. But really... this is just heart-breaking. Not only because of the inevitable death that this young child is hurtling towards, but because of the level of hatred that the Coalition actions have managed to nurture. I know that my culture and the Iraqi culture are separated by more than mere geographical distance, but being a kid means that the responsibility of the world isn't yours to burden yet. And yet, the urge to fight against injustice is something that should be kindled.
As I've argued before in this blog, it would be immoral of the Coalition to withdraw now - but the emphasis has to change. The command structure has to change. The authority has to change. Above all, it needs to be the Iraqi people deciding their destiny, even if in the short-term it looks like they're going the wrong way. The thing that is painfully apparent at the moment, is that the Coalition may very well win the short-term battle for stability in Iraq... but in the process they will have lost any chance for a longer, more substantial cordiality between Iraq and the rest of the Western world.
My parents encouraged me to come here," said Malik, a boy of about 14 from the southern Shia city of Diwaniyah.
"I would prefer to live and taste victory but if not my death will be rewarded with spiritual gifts in heaven."
Little Moqtada agreed. "I am young and there is a time for playing football and enjoying myself," he said. "But there is also a time for death."
1 Comments:
"I would prefer to live and taste victory but if not my death will be rewarded with spiritual gifts in heaven."
..
Personally I don't think children should be forced to take up on a religion that convinces them things like that. Of course this has to do with responsibility and seeing things from various angles (not just religion) on the parents' side.
Also, I don't really think children of that age understand yet what death means, or what life offers. Indoctrination is nice, religion is nice, but at this age I can't help myself but think of brainwashing.
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