Posted on 04/03/2003 4:00:52 AM PST by kattracks
American troops threatened by chemical weapons and suicide bombings face another danger when they reach Baghdad - Saddam Hussein's army of children. Well-trained, ferocious and 8,000-strong, the Ashbal Saddam - Saddam's Lion Cubs - are waiting in the capital for U.S. forces to arrive, said Peter Singer, a fellow with Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. The Cubs are a junior Fedayeen Saddam - the militia directed by the Iraqi dictator's oldest son, Uday - whose fake surrenders and ruthless tactics in southern Iraq surprised U.S. war planners. "Whatever the Fedayeen has been willing to do, you can extrapolate that these children will do the same," said Singer, author of the forthcoming book "Caution: Children at War." After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saddam's security police began forcing boys as young as 6 from their families and into intensive boot camps. There, they are beaten, forced to kill animals and indoctrinated with Baath Party propaganda. They emerge about age 10 schooled in the use of small arms and basic infantry tactics, clad in black trousers and shirts bearing the inscription "Ashbal Saddam," said the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights. U.S. soldiers have battled children before, in Vietnam, Somalia and Afghanistan, where the first American killed in action died from shots fired by a 14-year-old boy. Like the Hitler Youth But experts said U.S. forces can expect more organized and dogged resistance from the Cubs, similar to the Hitler Youth in the waning days of World War II. "Ambushes, sniping, hit-and-run tactics are the most likely things we'll see," Singer said. In northern Iraq, U.S. troops may find themselves fighting in the trenches alongside children. There are an estimated 3,000 children serving with Kurdish opposition forces opposed to Saddam, said the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. A UN international children's treaty signed by 109 countries - including the U.S. and Iraq - bans the use of soldiers under 18. It has yet to be ratified. For G.I.s and Marines threading their way through the perilous streets of Baghdad, it likely will be difficult to tell a Cub from a civilian child - until that child raises a weapon. "These soldiers are trained to kill - but women and children belong to another category," said Charlie Borchini of the Marine Corps' Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities, who teaches tactics to use when fighting children. Keni Thomas, an Army Ranger who fought in Somalia, said that in the heat of battle, a soldier is a soldier. "At the time, it is not a difficult decision to make," he said. "In the end, only you know what you see down your sight," he said. "Whether it's a man, woman, child or machine firing at you, it's a threat."
Originally published on April 3, 2003
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