Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic
True that...
I reckon the media is to blame.
I think the real reason we hear about children and AKs is that it was/is very good media fodder to keep the Western masses paranoid about Communism/terrorism.
|
Sorry not buying.
The point had nothing to do with AKs or communists.
It had everything to do with kidnapping and forced conscription of 12-15 year-old boys, and forcing them to become soldiers in an absolutest army (obey or die) in a series of particularly ugly wars which made little difference between combatant and noncombatant.
Note, we aren't talking about cases of national survival; in most cases, these were 'civil' conflicts (though many of the dividing lines had ethnic or religious fault lines.
They were armed with AKs because those were the cheapest, most available arms. Some of the children were conscripted by communists, some in Mozambique (for example) were conscripted by anti-communists.
I don't know about you, but to me, kidnapping children to turn them into slave soldiers is wrong whoever does it or whatever they are armed with.
Uncle Ted