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Wasn't it in the Congo where some UN peacekeepers were begging for days over the radio to be rescued from their outpost before being found later? They had been tortured, hacked up and partially cannibalized.

Yon has some first-hand photos on his site of a town where troops found skulls from decapitated children. But in this case Yon is clear it's not his story. He's relating someone else's testimony and doesn't imply the story has been vetted as of yet. At first it is unbelievable because we were 'protected' by our gov and media from even seeing what 9/11 was really like. We were spared the splattered corpses and the sight of burn victims and incinerated bodies. But on reflections we shouldn't be surprised because this sort of thing really isn't unknown, certainly not in a war zone or in a region of the world where stoning the rape victim, sawing off the heads of defenseless prisoners, or fitting your kid for a suicide belt isn't unheard of, but rather common. By all means consider it unverified because so far it is. But don't be so sure it couldn't happen.

The previous regime tortured soccer players for losing games, abducted young women for concubines, tested chemical weapons on prisoners, imprisoned toddlers and other children of dissidents, put people in plastic shredders, fed people to lions, dogs and so on, forced doctors to remove the ears of deserters, etc. Why should it shock us that al Qaeda, even more anarchic than Saddam's regime and desperately in need of manpower because it's been getting its butt kicked all over the world, would torch someone's child to intimidate the families and neighbors into providing aid, intel or even young unwitting fighters to save themselves from the same fate?

After so recently hearing the news in our own country of the houseful of snakes who tortured a boy by repeatedly tying him up in the bathtub where his own mother poured boiling water on him enough times to leave his hands and feet mutilated beyond recognition before she eneded up buried in the back yard, why do Americans still harbor the belief that al Qaeda might have qualms about scorching a boy to strike fear in the local populace?

There are cases where families have been first bribed to turn over boys to the terrorists to be used as scouts, bomb-delivery systems and fighters ... with quite a bit of cash. If the bribe doesn't persuade then the terrorists simply use fear. They get the village's able-bodied boys or they start killing kids in creative ways - burning a victim or two could just be one method - until they get the cooperation of the villagers, and kill any adult who balks. The terrorists, many of them foreigners- have already demonstrated they're not above strapping bombs on retarded people who don't know any better and sending them against a checkpoint. What does a palestinian, a Yemeni or Chechnyan care if an Iraqi gets wasted?

My nephew came back from there and said the terrorists would use people by sending unarmed people forward to rush US troops' camps over and over just to provoke a shooting incident, to distract us or Iraqi troops, or to spot weaknesses. While some of these may have been volunteers- [US ROE has hands so tied they aren't shot on sight] it is probably just as likely some are people who have been abducted and forced to do it knowing that if they don't, their families will be killed.