I grew up listening to the song “Teach Your Children Well.” For the most part, our parents did well but what are parents doing these days? Where are the protestors anymore? Does anyone care about saving children? In its propaganda, ISIS uses gruesome videos of beheadings and massive executions and if that is not bad enough showing no respect for human life, on the battlefield the bombers have become one of their most effective weapons. They are modern suicide bombers and like many of the bombers, they are children. What kind of parent would allow a child to sacrifice their young life for any cause yet?

Children want to play, please their parents and have fun. Suicide bombing by children was never in the equation throughout history for any reason. It is difficult to know how many children have been trained in Iraq and Syria but reports say that in recent months, the numbers are in the hundreds. It is a tactic perfected by the Taliban and other terrorist networks who systematically recruit and   train suicide bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. How can anyone take a child as young as seven years old and turn them into bombs with devastating effects?  In just one province in Pakistan over 400 soldiers have been killed by teen aged suicide bombers. They are organized and they do what they are told to do. Is it an advantage to use children? The leaders admit that children obey without many questions. I guess thinking means nothing. Obeying is everything to a child.

There is an advantage to using children as bombers because they will listen with few questions. So, respect for their elders means the older people should take advantage of their obedience to the point of killing the children? Where is the logic in all this horror? They train the boys from anywhere from 4 to 6 months to become a fighter, a watchman or a suicide bomber. They believe that the boys are child martyrs motivated by religious honor. Others say that there are many children that have been abducted and forced into their new roles. Threats, violence and intimidation are used on the boys. Once the Taliban gets control over an area they ask the families to give up one child   along with some cattle and money to contribute to their fighting cause. The parents have no choice but to comply   to   their demands.

Children learn how to become human bombs in remote training camps. There they are trained to use conventional weapons. They learn how to wear and detonate vests. Once the children are taken to the camps, they are not allowed to see their parents again. They are taught that they will be sent to paradise. Where exactly   is this paradise? No one knows. I believe that paradise is here on earth but that is just me. If the Pakistani Army is able to rescue some of these boys, they are trying to rehabilitate them rather than treat them as the criminals they have become. They are sent to a school and remain there till they become no risk to the people. They find that the children don’t even know what reality is supposed to be when they were isolated and only knew of videos that showed beheading. To help reverse the damage to the children who don’t even have a empathy for human life they are now exposed to psychologists and social workers. They receive religious training about a moderate Islam not the radical Islam preached by the Taliban

It takes more courage to forgive people than to punish them and this is the problem now. One can say that the children were just being obedient to the wishes of their elders or we now have natural born killers on our hands that are so young. No doubt the world is still a dangerous place for generations to come. Too bad no one notices the paradise that we are lucky enough to be alive in here on earth.