Vunderkind
Social Member
On the 7th of January, CNN carried a disturbing story of a girl who had apparently been groomed all her life to ultimately sacrifice herself as a suicide bomber. Ten-year old Spozhmai was allegedly supposed to blow up a border police station in the southern Helmand province. Even though the details surrounding her capture and eventual rescue, one thing is sure: this is disturbing for obvious reasons.
BBC carried a related story telling us that the girl is the sister of a Taliban commander, and there are stories saying her own brother forced her into the attempted suicide bombing.
To be fair, though, this isn’t the first time these jihadists have used children to ‘support’ their cause. Professionals whose jobs it is to study international terrorism say it is a marked attribute of these Islamic sects to recruit within their families, and that these children usually have no idea what they are asked to do. Some of them were drugged into compliance. Can you imagine that?
Mia Bloom and John Horgan (of BBC) tell the story of a six-year boy, Juma Gul who, in 2007, was the subject of a failed Taliban suicide bombing plan. The young boy was strapped with the vest and told that “flowers and food would appear” when he pressed the detonation button.
However, as the boy walked towards the target, he paused. Instead of pressing the button, he called for help from Afghan National Army soldiers (who were nearby). The soldiers deactivated the bomb and rescued the boy.
If you found the slave trade or - currently – child trafficking – despicable, this should inflame you beyond comfort. We should understand further that like begets like, and it may only be a matter of time before the ugly child-bombing face of terrorists begin to hit closer to home.
While we are battling insecurity, power generation problems and the hydra-headed coerruption monster, it would be really exasperating to have to grapple with the insurgence of child bombers, innocent, barely developed children, gangly babies who are yet to decipher left from right.
In the war against terrorism, both sides, to a certain degree, tend to fight fair, but factoring in child bombers just makes the term ‘fighting dirty’ a euphemism.
BBC carried a related story telling us that the girl is the sister of a Taliban commander, and there are stories saying her own brother forced her into the attempted suicide bombing.
To be fair, though, this isn’t the first time these jihadists have used children to ‘support’ their cause. Professionals whose jobs it is to study international terrorism say it is a marked attribute of these Islamic sects to recruit within their families, and that these children usually have no idea what they are asked to do. Some of them were drugged into compliance. Can you imagine that?
Mia Bloom and John Horgan (of BBC) tell the story of a six-year boy, Juma Gul who, in 2007, was the subject of a failed Taliban suicide bombing plan. The young boy was strapped with the vest and told that “flowers and food would appear” when he pressed the detonation button.
However, as the boy walked towards the target, he paused. Instead of pressing the button, he called for help from Afghan National Army soldiers (who were nearby). The soldiers deactivated the bomb and rescued the boy.
If you found the slave trade or - currently – child trafficking – despicable, this should inflame you beyond comfort. We should understand further that like begets like, and it may only be a matter of time before the ugly child-bombing face of terrorists begin to hit closer to home.
While we are battling insecurity, power generation problems and the hydra-headed coerruption monster, it would be really exasperating to have to grapple with the insurgence of child bombers, innocent, barely developed children, gangly babies who are yet to decipher left from right.
In the war against terrorism, both sides, to a certain degree, tend to fight fair, but factoring in child bombers just makes the term ‘fighting dirty’ a euphemism.
