Editorial

War movie re-runs

Where have we seen this before?

Editor's note: Jarjis Muhammad Hajaj, a resident of Iraq living near Qayara, told the Associated Press that ISIS has grown desperate as Iraqi troops, militias and Kurdish fighters--backed by American firepower--have closed in on Mosul, the last large city held by ISIS in Iraq. Mr. Hajaj noted that ISIS is now recruiting younger and younger kids to do its bidding, and the militants now guarding the streets for ISIS are all teenagers now. He said when he saw that, he thought, "They're collapsing. They're finished."

Kids are doing much of the fighting as the good guys close in. And the kids get by with, say, a minimum of training. Maybe only half a day. Maybe only to learn how to throw a grenade or charge with a rifle and bayonet. Ammo included. Sometimes.

You might not believe it (or you might) but kids can be dangerous critters. Get them early enough, brainwash them, and you could have some real Lord of the Flies moments. That is, sharpening a stick on both ends for a little fun after the kill. Young people can be taught to dispatch the unwanted with smiles on their faces. Like the song says, you have to be carefully taught. And also, by the way, carefully not taught some things. Like human decency.

The leadership is in a desperate position, and desperate times call for . . . you know. If you can't field an army with 30-year-olds, start "recruiting" 15-year-olds. Or younger. Maybe much younger. And if they won't be recruited, hand them over to the kids who have been. Soon enough those with pitiful objections will be marching along with everybody else, or come out a head shorter.

Every available male! And parents who might object--if they've lived this long--better think twice. Or maybe they'll get a visit from a few kids themselves one night.

Children follow orders so well. Especially when they're given a snappy uniform and maybe a rifle. Word has it that they don't even need liquor or tobacco to get them lathered up. Candy will do. No, really.

Children also work wonders as spies and saboteurs. Put a few among the crowded refugees as they pass the battle lines and who's to tell which kid is with mommy and which kid is . . . with orders? They can carry explosives in their lunchboxes, and poison in their pockets.

And discipline in the ranks! Why, professional soldiers aren't as good at maintaining discipline. Because professional soldiers know the rules of war. Children don't. (You have to be carefully not taught, remember.) Pick the right boy out of the group, and he could be as cruel to deserters as any Inquisitor with a rack and a bloodlust.

As the Allies closed in on Berlin in 1945, they took out whole sections of the Volkssturm made up of boys under the age of 12. Alongside a few girls. Project Werewolf--the German command's bright idea to use children as saboteurs--was a disaster for the Germans. But the kids were better at defending bridges and crossroads with 88s as the Allies closed in on the nation's capital. And yes, the Germans were collapsing. They were finished. But not before an untold number of children were sacrificed to the insanity first.

Let's finish ISIS soonest. It couldn't happen to a more deserving outfit.

Editorial on 08/29/2016

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