Child Terrorists

A school for brainwashing children into becoming terrorists was found in Pakistan. Interesting enough, the Taliban denied ownership of the specific school, but they claimed that “they are actively training children from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East to be suicide bombers.”

The general tactic used by the terrorists is to try to convince the children that if they are killed while engaging in terrorist attacks, then they will go to Heaven and be rewarded for their deeds.

While adults are often irrational enough to buy into this, children are even more vulnerable to this sort of approach. After all, their cognitive and critical skills are even less developed than adults (and most adults have extremely limited skills). They are also more inclined to trust adults and to accept fantastic claims. After all, children readily accept Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Hence, buying the notion of a Heaven for murderers is an easy one for children to accept.

Targeting children is, of course, an old tactic. In the 20th century, Hitler developed this approach to a new level with his Hitler Youth. Less destructively, people in marketing also made this realization and target kids for such things as tobacco and alcohol in addition to kids’ products such as toys and boy bands.

While terrorism is bad enough, doing this to children is truly horrific. The main harm being done, aside from the killing, is that children are being robbed of their futures through the use of lies. Obviously, the children most likely lack the ability to make a rational assessment of what is being offered and cannot make a free and informed choice.

Those who do this might believe in what they are doing, but they are truly evil to use children in such a manner. Of course, using the youth in this manner is an old tradition-the older men sending the young out to die.

This shows part of the stakes on the table: the future and well being of children. This is yet another reason why we need to rid the world of the various terrorist groups: they bring death and steal the futures of children.