Listening to them yell made my guts freeze into a block of ice. I'm not seeing this, this can't be real. I heard those yells in a movie, "Blood Diamond." I think Uganda and the demonic army of forced child soldiers. I think Sierra Leone and the diamond wars and all the kids who were turned into drugged-up killers and the families destroyed. I think of a generation so scarred that it will never be the same. I am sickened and angry at people who would be so ruthless and evil as to even consider using children and destroying their own legacy this way.
When children become armed killers, their tenderness is brainwashed into hardened nerves, and the order of adults protecting children is turned on its head.
Where are we going? Oh Lord, have mercy. Help us turn back the tide before its too late. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.
Here is an excellent quote I found from an American military doctor on his blog....
http://madeadifference.blogspot.com/2008/02/9-feb-2008-worth-wait.htm
It is purported to be an Al Qaeda training and recruitment video, and it jibes with some of the examples of child soldiers I saw in Iraq. In the video, some of the kids are smaller than the AK-47's and RPG-launchers they carry. I can remember twelve and thirteen-year-old children being brought to the hospital in Balad after having been captured while participating in Al Qaeda operations. One way that our base was attacked was when militants would pay children trinkets or small sums of money to launch a mortar at the base at an appointed hour. Al Queda would be gone by the time the launch was detected, but the unwitting child would be left holding the bag. Children were also used as spotters for vehicles or trigger-men (trigger-boys?) for IED attacks. My friends in Baghdad took in injured kids as young as nine-years-old who were found armed with AK-47's. It is a disgusting and heinous betrayal of trusting, vulnerable youth.
We must remain vigilant in preventing use of child soldiers. There is much experience with the damage caused to the child soldiers in Africa. I recommend an incredible but heartrending book by Ismael Beah called "A Long Way Gone" detailing his recruitment to fight as a child in Sierra Leone. It takes years after the trauma of war for a child to recover, if they survive. International law in the form of the Geneva Conventions forbids the recruitment and employment of soldiers younger than 15, but even that age is too young. We must be wary of recruiting US children who are too young, vulnerable, and impressionable to make an informed decision about their capability to serve. The No Child Left Behind law includes a provision that compels high schools to provide military recruiters with children's names, addresses, and phone numbers. As recruitment needs are stretched for our military, many of our hometowns are finding that graduating high school children and high school dropouts are forming the newest ranks in the war. I know that our strong US military has long been carried on the backs of brave young men and women who had to mature on the quick when they threw themselves in harm's way for our great nation. However, as our enemy stoops to despicable acts of despoiling the young, we will remain strongest when we take the moral high road and protect the safety and future of our youngest citizens. As a parent and one who has chosen a life in the service of children, there is no other conclusion I can find in my conscience.
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