I heard recently from a friend in Iraq that it is increasingly common for militants to pass on their dirty work to small children. Routinely small kids will throw grenades at American soldiers. The kids are not evil, they are simply children capable of being molded. What would you do in that situation? Once a child pulls a grenade, as a soldier you would be forced to remove the threat. However can anybody easily digest the thought of killing a child? The worst part of the scenario is that these kids have next to nothing. They don’t have much money so they get pulled into shady situations wherby they are offered money in exchange for some dirty work. Being children, they are not good judges of right and wrong ect.
The same person who told me about these child grenadiers had a friend who was forced to open fire on one of these children. The child pulled a grenade so the soldier removed the threat. These are the types of instances that our soldiers in Iraq have faced on a regular basis. It is my hope that as our soldiers return to the US they will be honored and appreciated in the greatest ways possible. If you know someone who is serving, take the time to truly thank them for what they have done. Say a prayer for the safety and the mental health of anyone you know in Iraq and even people you don’t know. After all, these people are risking their lives and their mental health to help the United States and the nation of Iraq.
