| War on Iraq: Operations Begin | |
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Teach Your Children Well Jonathan Rhodes |
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Saddam Hussein has sent thousands of boys aged 12 to 17 to training camps where they spend a minimum three weeks learning light weaponry and basic soldiering, along with political indoctrination and "religious" classes. Once they have graduated and are successfully integrated into the organization these schoolchildren are further selected for special schools, military institutes and universities.
Hitlerjugend: In December of 1941, Adolph Hitler created the Wehrertüchtigungslager 
or WELS (Defense Strengthening Camps). They went into operation in Germany providing three weeks of mandatory war training for all boys aged 16 to 18 under the supervision of the Wehrmacht. They learned how to handle German infantry weapons including various pistols, machine-guns, hand grenades and Panzerfausts. Hitler said, as he launched the Nazi Youth Movement:
"My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes...That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication...That is how I will create the New Order."
Saddam's Ba'thist ideology, like any good fascist vision, believes in "breaking down the traditional bounds of society to produce the new man."9 Saddam also said in 1977:
"To avoid parents being a retrograde force in the home, we must arm the child with an inner light so that he can repel this influence. Some fathers have escaped our hold for various reasons, but a young boy is still in our hands... The family unit must comply with centralised customs, ruled by revolutionary positions and traditions.
Teach him to stand up to one or other of his parents... And also teach the child that he must also be wary of strangers...a student adept at moving within different yet perfectly organised structures will, when the time comes, be able to stand in the sun, bearing arms day and night, without flagging [...] and when asked to confront the imperialists or to charge in attacks in this troubled region, will do so because, from childhood, he has developed the habit of doing everything in an orderly way."9
Ashbal Saddam, Saddam's Lion Cubs were launched in 1998 to prepare young volunteers for The Fedeyeen Saddam - a 60,000-strong paramilitary force set up in 1994, controlled by Saddam’s son Uday, that assists in regime security. see Center of Gravity
 Training 'cubs' Ripping apart raw chickens with bare hands and teeth. -- AFP |
The uniformed, regimented boys of Ashbal Saddam (Saddam's Lion Cubs) told the Associated Press: "We are the sharp swords in the hand of President Saddam Hussein to be used to fight our enemies!" Mustafa Amir, 14 (while cleaning his AK-47) "I was scared in the beginning but when I was acquainted with the people and the weapons, the days started to pass fast." Sinan Abid Salman, 15 |
According to the Middle East Times."The boys were dropped off by their parents at collection points in Baghdad run by the ruling Baath Party and taken by bus to the camps to receive three weeks of "military and cultural training."
This year's program has been named the "Al Aqsa Intifada" in solidarity with the Palestinian uprising against Israel that erupted in September 2000.
Perhaps the free world learned a lesson from the Hitlerjugend. Saddam's action is a war crime.
Report of the Preparatory
Commission for the International
Criminal Court (p.37)
Article 8 (2) (b) (xxvi)
War crime of using, conscripting or enlisting children
Elements
1. The perpetrator conscripted or enlisted one or more persons into the national armed forces or used one or more persons to participate actively in hostilities.
2. Such person or persons were under the age of 15 years.
3. The perpetrator knew or should have known that such person or persons were under the age of 15 years.
4. The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with an international armed conflict.
5. The perpetrator was aware of factual circumstances that established the existence of an armed conflict.
Saddam's ideology, his aims for regional hegemony and the methods he uses to achieve those aims are copied from his boyhood hero, Adolph Hitler. See The Case Against Saddam: Rise to Power.
SEPTEMBER 11: WHAT OUR CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW
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The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has achieved an educational library for our children by asking "several dozen educators, scholars and analysts to write brief essays that answered this straightforward question: "What civic lessons are the most imperative for U.S. K-12 teachers to teach their pupils, as the 'anniversary' of the September 11th attacks draws near, about the United States and what it means to be an American?""
"What are the major lessons of September 11th that teachers should introduce to their young charges?
"Why is such advice needed? The short, unpleasant answer is because so much nonsense is circulating in the education world that we felt obliged to offer some sort of alternative, an objective rendering from the perspective of first-rate thinkers, scholars, analysts and educators who share our discomfort with what is fast becoming the conventional wisdom in education-land."
"The authors, as you will see, range from such prominent figures as Lynne Cheney and William Bennett, through an array of scholars, authors and critics, to education practitioners."
As the anniversary of 911 rapidly approaches, efn highly recommends that parents review and share this with their children.
"What are the major lessons of September 11th that teachers should introduce to their young charges?
In this report, with the help of 23 distinguished authors, we seek to provide answers to those questions and to suggest what U.S. schools and educators should teach their students so that they will better understand this event, its precursors and its aftermath and so that they will be better able to function as young citizens of a nation that has endured a wicked attack and is now engaged in a serious and protracted war. "
SEPTEMBER 11: WHAT OUR CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW
(To view PDF documents, you must use the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This program is free and can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html .)