Children Doing Battle in Iraq(The surge is working!)

Los Angeles Times ^ | August 26, 2007 | By Alexandra Zavis and Garrett Therolf

[kellynla]

BAGHDAD — 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.

"As our operations have increased, Al Qaeda [in Iraq] and others have used more minors in the fight against us, and in the process we have detained more and more juveniles," Stone said.

He said the children make effective fighters because they are easily influenced, don't experience fear in the same way as adults and don't draw as much scrutiny from U.S. forces.

Other causes for the increase in detentions may be that U.S. forces are simply coming into contact with more children because of the troop buildup, and that financial pressures may have pushed some Iraqi families toward the militants.

[kellynla]

"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"

[kellynla]

ping

[neodad]

Other causes for the increase in detentions may be that U.S. forces are simply coming into contact with more children because of the troop buildup, and that financial pressures may have pushed some Iraqi families toward the militants.

For all you liberals out there who don't want to think of us winning . . . . . .

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Iraqi Children Turn on US Troops.

Film at 11:00.

/s

[Old Sarge]

The most dangerous thing on the battlefield is no longer a second lieutenant with a map - it’s a pre-teen Mooj boy with a cel phone.

They watched the gate as we rolled out, and called their contacts. They begged for candy and watched our reactions. The kids can be wired to command-detonate just as easily as any martyr.

[NY Attitude]

Of course MSM is going to claim that our soldiers are killing innocent children just playing soldier with real AK-47s.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Shades of Vietnam. Kids throwing snakes and grenades into US and ARVN trucks and bivouacs.

[Obie Wan]

Ahhhhhh,this is Free Republic.How many liberals do you think you’re talking to ???

[gogogodzilla]

Why are we holding prisoners? Just shoot the little b@st@rds in the back of the head and be done with it.

Otherwise the little sh@ts will grow up and try to kill you a second time (or third, or fourth).

Give the rat b@st@rds the ‘paradise’ they crave. ASAP!

[JohnBovenmyer]

They are having the captured boys taught to read Arabic and English, taught Iraqi history and civics, and letting them read Harry Potter in Arabic. The latter is a stroke of genius. Harry is proven to be addictive for young readers and is a much more interesting and better written story than the Deatheater’s manual they’ve been force fed. Harry is not only a healthy addiction (anyone who says otherwise is as deluded as those expecting 72 virgins) he is a great teacher for all the good things we value.

[Political Junkie Too]

More Vietnam analogies as the Left will now start calling our troops baby killers?

-PJ

[Triggerhippie]

Harry (Potter) is not only a healthy addiction (anyone who says otherwise is as deluded as those expecting 72 virgins) he is a great teacher for all the good things we value.

I don't know about *that* one. I value a 90-120 minute movie w/ no sequels. :)

[Grimmy]

HP even managed to have a Cincinnatus moment at the end. I loved the series. You said it right too. All the better virtues are highlighted in that series.

[counterpunch]

This is their battle of Berlin.

[counterpunch]

"As our operations have increased, Al Qaeda [in Iraq] and others have used more minors in the fight against us, and in the process we have detained more and more juveniles," Stone said.

The LA Slimes has now taken to altering the context of the comments of our military Generals in the field, as if they don't know what they really meant to say. Maj Gen. Stone said Al Qaeda and that is what he meant, because whether they are “in Iraq” or elsewhere, they are one and the same.

If this isn't proof that the MSM's prime objective is to separate Iraq from the War on Terrorism, then I don't know what is.

 

[NY Attitude]

You are so correct. They have already spit on returning troops. Since the advent of AIDS that is an assault with a deadly weapon and the spitter deserves to have his a$$ handed to he/she big time.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Some subjects can be adequately handled in short presentations and in those cases I agree with Rush, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” However complicated, multifaceted presentations require more time and repeated examples to be learned. Otherwise our education could be completed by the end of kindergarten. Even the Old Testament has a sequel and IMHO the better movie adaptations of even parts of it are longer than 90-120 min. Like most other good books Harry Potter works better as a book than as movies although its movies try harder to stay with the spirit of the books than most movie adaptations, while not being the 4-6 hour movies that precise adaptations would require. As books they can be put down and resumed more conveniently than movies and you can easily flip back to check on points you’ve forgotten. Or at least they can be put down after the first couple frenetic readings.

[Triggerhippie]

I was fairly sure, upon waking up from my second nap, a scant five hours before the final credits rolled, that I was in the Harry Potter movie (one was *plenty* for me, thanks.) for a week and a half.

If going to the movies is going to be in an endurance event, I’d like to know ahead of time. That’s all I’m saying.

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

I agree with Rush, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Rush? Wrong. You agree with Shakespeare.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

You wanna talk about one HELL of a long movie, go endure Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. I thought it would never end.

And they even clipped out one of the most important bits of all, that would’ve taken only 30 seconds or so to show.

I don’t know who directed that film, but whoever it is he ought to be made to walk the plank.