How the Taliban Turned a Child Into a Suicide Bomber

[Swede]

A 17-year-old died this week in Afghanistan, hanging from the end of a rope. A prison official fastened it around the boy's neck in Kabul's largest jail, tightened the knot, and then, in front of a crowd, removed the platform that held up the boy's feet.

He was hanged by the Afghan government because he was a killer. In February, Zar Ajam put on a suicide vest and a police officer's uniform. He picked up an AK-47, walked into the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad and started shooting. Forty people were dead by the time he took off his suicide vest and walked out, trying unsuccessfully to blend into the crowd of victims.

Zar Ajam might sound cold-blooded; he might sound evil.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/taliban-killer-zar-ajam-duped-terror-attack/story?id=13894578

[el_bryanto]

1. Yes he kind of does sound evil and cold-blooded.

I look forward to hearing how he's Obama's moral equivalent.

Bryant

[gratuitous]

2. Kids, get your parents' permission before enlisting

The United States has sent all kinds of 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds into combat situations to kill and die. The younger ones usually managed it by lying about their age, but a 17-year-old can join up with a permission slip from Mom and Dad. This story sounds horrible ("Turning children into suicide bombers! Those barbarians!"), but I am unable to distinguish any difference between what the Taliban are accused of doing, and what the United States does. At least the Taliban has the bad excuse of repelling an occupying invader; we turn our children into killers in the name of "freedom" or "liberty" or "spreading democracy" or some other such pleasant-sounding excuse.