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View Full Version : U.S. troops face Afghan enemy too young to kill



MNeagle
12th July 2010, 02:22 PM
http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20100712&t=2&i=152254360&w=300&fh=300&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2010-07-12T014652Z_01_BTRE66B04YO00_RTROPTP_0_AFGHANISTAN
A local boy looks at U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 2-508 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, as they conduct a morning patrol through the village of Kowall in Arghandab District, north of Kandahar July 11, 2010.

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20100712&t=2&i=152254361&w=300&fh=300&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2010-07-12T014652Z_01_BTRE66B04YP00_RTROPTP_0_AFGHANISTAN
Local boys walk past U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 2-508 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, as they conduct a morning patrol through the village of Kowall in Arghandab District, north of Kandahar July 11, 2010.


Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Staff Sergeant Aaron Best made no apologies as his soldiers escorted 14-year-old Ahmad, blindfolded and handcuffed, onto their outpost in southern Afghanistan for questioning.

"Don't be fooled," said Best, "I have detained so many teenagers. These fighters are getting younger and younger."

Ahmad, whose real name has been concealed to protect his identity, was picked up by a U.S. patrol along with a 15-year-old boy in Arghandab, in southern Kandahar province, one of Afghanistan's most volatile regions, because they were behaving suspiciously.

Ahmad and his friend were hiding in vegetation, observing the soldiers, when they were spotted. The boys scurried away and when Best's men finally caught up to them they tried to resist arrest, making the soldiers even more suspicious.

Both boys, along with several older detainees picked up on the patrol, tested positive for traces of ammonium nitrate on their hands, a chemical found in gunpowder and explosives. Ammonium nitrate is also found in certain fertilizers and, although they are banned in Afghanistan because they can be used to make homemade bombs, they are still used by some farmers. The detainees could simply have been farm laborers.

Ahmad and the others were kept overnight for questioning by Afghan police and released the next day to village elders who said they would vouch for them.

Whether or not Ahmad and his 15-year-old friend had been laying homemade bombs or had even fired weapons at U.S. troops before, Best's men will probably never find out, but the arrests illustrate a worrying trend reported from soldiers on the ground: that they are encountering an increasingly younger fighter.

"Over the last eight to nine years there has been a dynamic change in the age of fighters. Most fighters now are between 14 and 18 years-old," said Lieutenant Colonel Guy Jones, commander of 2-508th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, based in Arghandab.

"In 2002, fighters were 22 to 30-years-old and commanders were between 32 and 40," said Jones who is on his fourth tour in Afghanistan.

Jones pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket to illustrate his point. On the paper are the names of recently captured detainees with their photographs beside them. Their ages range from 14 to 20.

One wounded boy caught firing a weapon at U.S. forces is now recovering in hospital at the main foreign air base in Kandahar. He is only 13, said Jones.

"EMULATING THEIR GRANDFATHERS"

Jones said the young fighters were being coerced into joining the insurgency.

"These kids are looking at their elders and grandfathers as the great mujahideen, with respect, and they want to emulate them," said Jones, referring to the men who fought against the Soviet occupation during the 1980s.

"The Taliban are pressuring young fighters to fight like their grandfathers and telling them: 'Hey, be like them.'"

Whatever the reasons, it makes Best and his men wary of nearly everyone they meet on their patrol, and Afghanistan has one of the youngest populations in the world.

Each time the soldiers patrol out of their outpost in Arghandab, a white kite is hoisted up from a nearby village.

The soldiers know they have Taliban "spotters" around the area and that these are most likely children, but when they have challenged the kite fliers they claim ignorance. For the soldiers it has happened too many time to be a coincidence.

This time Staff Sergeant Best agreed with the Afghan police to let the detainees go, saying it could help build up a rapport with the community, but the platoon commander's frustration was palpable.

"At the end of the day we don't have enough evidence on them and keeping them in for another two days will only turn the village against us," he said.

"It's like you really have to catch them putting the bomb in or firing a gun at us for something to happen."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66B0A220100712

Phoenix
12th July 2010, 04:44 PM
The Empire cannot accept that these folks are defending their homeland due to the call of the heart of their soul. No "pressure" is needed from parents and grandparents to get these young people to fight.

iOWNme
15th July 2010, 03:48 PM
The Empire cannot accept that these folks are defending their homeland due to the call of the heart of their soul. No "pressure" is needed from parents and grandparents to get these young people to fight.


That pretty much sums it up.

They demonize the Mooslums because they 'train young terrorist' to kill Americans. When the truth is we have invaded their country, and they are merely defending themselves.

Which makes you realize they want you to take note = If you try and defend yourself or your property you are a terrorist.

Heimdhal
15th July 2010, 03:54 PM
We send 18 and 19 year old kids fresh out of high school to kill the fathers of these boys and then we are somehow suprised when, fatherless and landless they pick up arms to repel those that have obliterated their way of life?


The youngest soldier at Lexington and Concord was 15. Kids as young as 9 and 10 volunteered to run ammunition and food to their fathers and their towns militiamen during the entirtey of the battle. These boys are no different when their own homes are threatened.

Bluegill
22nd July 2010, 10:08 AM
We send 18 and 19 year old kids fresh out of high school to kill the fathers of these boys and then we are somehow suprised when, fatherless and landless they pick up arms to repel those that have obliterated their way of life?


The youngest soldier at Lexington and Concord was 15. Kids as young as 9 and 10 volunteered to run ammunition and food to their fathers and their towns militiamen during the entirtey of the battle. These boys are no different when their own homes are threatened.


Yep.

It seems it's ok, even honorable, should cracker christian do it. But heaven forbid a non-christian, non caucasian should feel the same way.

keehah
22nd July 2010, 10:35 AM
Re: U.S. troops face Afghan enemy too young to kill

Sounds like a sociopaths way of saying: 'Local Boys Resist Foreign Occupation'.

Or perhaps: 'We cannot kill their kids till they get older.'

Jonathon Burch and Reuters will have to wait for their kill.