Child Soldiers in Iraq

In Baghdad, as well as other regions of the highly unstable nation of Iraq, boys are evidently being trained by Al-Queda to fight against U.S. military forces. A video released in a news conference depicts a man being surrounded by a group of armed boys, and is forced to kneel as they wave their guns around him. Although this tape may be merely propaganda, the ugly fact that boys are indeed being enlisted by our enemies to fight is a horrifying reality. A spokesperson of America, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, says the insurgents “want to poison the next generation of Iraqis.”

There are also other tapes of the boys attacking a man on bicycle, as well as forcing a group of men out of a car and kidnapping them. Other videos show the boys running from a house, shouting “God is great” in addition to one scene depicting them sitting around their stack of weapons reciting prayers. The militarily however does not believe it is a real camp, and really propaganda because there had only been two cases of teenagers being used as suicide bombers. It is alerting, however, that there has been an increase of women being used as of late. There were several attacks last week made by women, but it has been stated by the Iraqi and United States militaries that these were carried out by persons with mental disabilities.

Meanwhile in the Anbar province, a warring group has given the Iraqi Islamic Party thirty days to vacate the seats they hold in the provincial council. These tribes are a valuable tool to the United States, as they have joined one another to fight Al Queda in Mesopotamia. On Wednesday, United States forces advanced on a house and tried to enter it, and in doing so killed the inhabitants inside, which included a man, his wife, and his son, while at least one daughter was reportedly wounded. Those who lived nearby described the carnage, and said there was nothing that prompted the attack made by the U.S. forces. In addition, mass graves have been found in Samarra. Officials speculate that it was the work of Islamic extremist groups.

The issue I found most overwhelming in this article was the matter of boys being enlisted to fight for Al-Quada, as the title suggests. It has been years since the U.S. declared war on the faction of Al-Quada, and I believe this is a sign that they are beginning to run out of man power to drive their destruction forward. The fact that Muslim terrorists are now resorting to the use of children, whether it simply be propaganda or not, is disgusting to me. How can any faction in their right mind extort the minds of children? It seems incredibly inhumane, due to the fact that children are much more easy to influence, and therefore may be pushed innocently into committing acts that many adults in their right minds would not do. These actions conflict most heavily with the Catholic Social Teachings of Rights and Responsibilities, as well as Promotion of Peace. It is the responsibility of the adults in a child’s environment to nurture and promote things that are ideal to their maturing process, as opposed to ruining an entire generation of Iraqis. If they succeed, we may be face with a much longer challenge in Iraq than we had predicted.