Kids in Afghanistan go nuts for handouts.

[Cee]

Check out what kids do when Canadian Soldiers show up  8)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=10f5c38d6c

 

[1feral1]

I can't get into that site, as I am on a 'company computer', but I will sum up by saying when you are dealing with a culture which openly accepts, and uses and allows its own children to be used as pawns of war. Such examples are as an unknownly suicide device, or to lure Coalition Mbrs to an IED, or having a suicide bomber join the group, its best to keep clear of kids while outside the wire PERIOD.

Kids are also good sniper lures too. The enemy knows that our culture is drawn to kids, and our natural good intentions become a DEADLY weakness for us.

There is other ways to win their hearts and minds, so in a few years down range, these kids just might not be carrying the AKMs and RPGs used against us, but if carrying them, maybe they'll be supporting us and their new government instead.

The lives you save are theirs, and maybe yours.

We steer clear of them at all costs. The last thing you want to do is hurt one by being squished by an AFV.


Regards fom the most outragously violent city on earth (Baghdad),

Wes

 

[Jarnhamar]

On the flip side if you reach kids when their young and show them westerners are not monsters isn't that a better chance that the kid won't grow up and zing an RPG your way?

 

[Armymedic]

We have been in country for over 4 yrs...

No news to those of us who hae been there.

 

[Bigmac]

        My only concern is that Canadian troops will start getting complacent around groups of children. One child even tried to get into the vehicle. 
        In Vietnam the VC used poor village children to toss grenades into vehicles as they new the soldiers would let them get close.

 

[Bigmac]

The New Child Labor Problem

The result is that children are now easily transformed into soldiers and the nature of conflict is altered. Once children and battlefield weapons were incompatible; now they combine to create what one might conceptualize as a new pool of military labor. Children, considered in some societies as expendable assets, now represent an easy and low-cost way to mobilize armed force.

The practice has been particularly prominent in the context of vulnerable or failed states. It has been a way for even the weakest and most unpopular organizations to generate significant amounts of force with almost no investment. In most cases, there has been a direct link to ready commodities that provided willing conflict entrepreneurs the incentive to quickly seize what they could.[26] Even when personal profit has not been the case, in wartime situations there is always motivation to assemble military force.

    Children are being used as soldiers in many present day conflicts. They can also be utilized to gather information as they are able to get up close and personal. The quote above is from an article of US Army war college and a good read. It describes how quickly children can be recruited and trained to fight. The Taliban could easily do the same in Afghanistan. It is a bad idea to continue allowing village children to swarm military vehicles.
      Remainder of article on link below.

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/01winter/singer.htm

 

[gaspasser]

Seems highly illogical to hand out baseballs which are the same size as handgrenades?? To a bunch of possible "opposing forces".
On the other hand, an improvised way of removing children from the immediate area of your vehicle without running over any. 
That type of craziness happens anywhere in the world where children and troops are in close proximity.
Regards,   

 

[tannerthehammer]

That made me smile...Those kids were so happy the troops gave them stuff...

 

[TN2IC]

Those kids ran out there like it was the Ice Cream back home!

 

[3rd Herd]

Watched a CBC documentary last week on computer games and kids. Turns out in Syria and I imagine a few other places government officials and others where worried about the effect on the children playing computer games in which the Arab is always killed. So to even things up a Syrian company has produced a game using Westerners as targets, along the lines of Postal.

 

[Groucho]

When I was in Iraq with the British in 2004! The troops were ordered to stop handing out items on the move! The fear was one of the kids would run into the road and get hit by a British vehicle! You got Iraqis asking for water all the time !