Children doing battle in Iraq

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

Child fighters, once a rare presence on Iraq's battlefields, are playing a significant and growing role in kidnappings, killings and roadside bombings in the country, U.S. military officials say.

Boys, some as young as 11, now outnumber foreign fighters at U.S. detention camps in Iraq. Since March, their numbers have risen to 800 from 100, said Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of detainee operations. The Times reported last month that only 130 non-Iraqi fighters were in U.S. custody in Iraq.

Stone attributes the rise in child fighters in the country, in part, to the pressure that the U.S. buildup of troops has placed on the influx of the foreign fighters.

Fewer of them are making it into the country, he said, and the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq is having a difficult time recruiting adults locally. Thus, it has turned to children.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-childfighters27aug27,0,6380385.story?coll=la-home-center

[shraby]

1. Is it possible that these are children

who have lost their parents in this holocaust?

[JNelson6563]

7. My first thought too

How many kids have buried their families? These would be easy recruits.

If we were out to create a whole new generation of enemies I'd say "mission accomplished".

Ugh.

Julie

[EFerrari]

2. Cool. We're making war on children. n/t

[Victoras]

3. Iraqi answer...

the kids are trying to be survivors, and i see it as a way to get food & safety,
much like the 'Gang' thing in the USA is.

[Limelight]

4. This is nothing uncommon...

The concept of impressing children into military fighting has been done pretty seriously in parts of Africa where civil war has stretched on for many years if not decades.

Yet another ugly bi-product of war.

[ck4829]

5. How many of these children don't have parents or families because of this war?

[Crayson]

6. What to do when you starve...

Join an army...
It's the same picture as in central africa...

War lords! Child soldiers!! Great hob!!
Can't be long for the drugs, ethnic cleansings and mass rapes.

Operation Iraqi freedom... they're soooo free now, they're anarchists!!
Everybody is free to kill each other.

[krispos42]

8. As soon as they can hold an AK-47...

Age 10? 11?

We've been there over four years, that's pretty much half or their lives beyond infancy.

And the second-worst part is...




Our soldiers and Marines will have to kill them, and live with it.





The worst part is that these children will be gunned down in a war-torn country before puberty.

:cry:

[NNN0LHI]

9. LA Times must be talking about the kids who weren't killed during Shock and Awe

LA Times never mentions them. Though they did think up the Winnebagos Of Death scam.

Don

[Javaman]

10. What eventually happens to these kids when we pull out?

nice to see a whole new crop of future terrorists brought to you by the moron*.

[proffate]

11. It depends

The ones on the winning side, employment, probably as some form of enforcer. The ones on the loosing side will be liquidated.

[Madspirit]

12. What do you call an 18 year old?

Our species claims to love its children when in fact, they are the first sacrificed EVEN BY US.

Lee

[porphyrian]

13. Is this horror enough yet?

Do we need to start using babies as suicide bombs before we end this shit?