CHILD SOLDIERS OF GENERATION GUN

 

A teddy-bear-backpack-toting child soldier points his gun

at a photographer in Monrovia, Liberia on June 27, 2003

By Noor al Haqiqa
Snippits and Snappits
March 18, 2011

We’re accustomed to seeing pictures of children carrying guns in grainy images from “war-torn, third-world” nations in Africa, South America, or South East Asia. Yet, the NRA is pushing more and more educational and “fun” recreational programs, schools, and camps children in the hopes of creating a new generation of children gun’s advocates. They even promote a whole new “Gunpowder and Mascara” lifestyle for young girls, complete with matching hip fashionables.

Personally, I think survival skills for girls is a stellar idea.

These girls are learning to hunt duck.

People like little McKenzie are their new stars, which is why she all over the web now.

McKenzie, the 11-year-old who can field strip and reassemble a rifle in 53 secs

This video may prove shocking if you’re not accustomed to seeing children handling guns. On the American blogosphere however, 11-year-old McKenzie has attracted great admiration.

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 Toddler chic in America. Early conditioning ~ start 'em young.

The video of an eleven-year-old girl assembling a rifle in record time is causing a stir on the web. Largely admired in the US, the video has attracted such comments as “beware terrorists”, “don’t break her heart or she’ll murder your whole family” and “this girl is awesome”. 

Whereas this child is full time military, not only trained to kill

but to be used by her superiors.

However, in places where learning to use a gun at a tender age is not exactly commonplace the video has raised concern over children’s access to guns ~ particularly since it involves a country infamous for its school shootings. Despite 1989 Child Access Prevention laws in place in many states, nearly 12 times more under-14-year-olds die from firearms incidents in the US compared with 25 other developed countries combined [according to the anti-gun violence Brady Campaign]. Nonetheless, owning a gun is a fundamental right in the US, and protected by the Second Amendment. Our Observers explain why.

Israeli settler child, IDF member in training, working on his "born to kill" expression..

As one commentator on the article defending gun ownership put it:

Mao said that “the ultimate political power comes out of the barrel of a gun”. If you do not own a gun you do not have any more political power than the powers that be… allow you to have. Since governments are being taken over by multinational corporations and international bankers, it is even more important that the people have guns and the right to use them.

Wow.

Can’t argue with that logic. So I guess Mao is the patron saint of the NRA crowd. Kind of makes sense. Outside of Stalin he was the greatest, longest ruling dictator of the Twentieth Century and certainly dominated more people than anyone in history. What an idol.

 Militarism is in. 

  Stores like Wal-Mart are full of camouflaged 

(even in cool blue for boys and hot pink for little girls), 

army-styled clothing lines. 

 Not quite army ~ yet. 

 They sell real guns next to the toy departments where they sell plastic guns.
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So, we create the world we live in and the world

the NRA wants is full of children soldiers. 
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This used to be considered the greatest sin, the nasty evil of 

those “other, dirty” dictatorships way “over there”

who exploited women and children. 

Now it is what we wish for the next generation. 
These guys just forgo the clothing and get into the nitty gritty.

Everyone should have a gun.

At home.

At work.

In the car.

In school.

Even in church.

Yes, start them at Daycare! 

A great number of unthinking and brainwashed Americans go about glamorizing the military life with and for their children. 

Let us see how it looks in reality, on children who have been sold, stolen, beaten into  their local military. The life ain't all as pretty as it sounds to hear it in America. Here are some poster children for the brave new world of eternal war, Generation Gun.

Amnesty International estimates that about 250,000 children under the age of 18 are currently fighting in warzones. The practice is ancient and often highly secretive, but over the past couple of decades has been seared into the international consciousness, largely through graphic, wrenching images of young children in situations no child should ever experience. Wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia have become especially infamous for their use of child soldiers. Here a young rebel poses with his machine-gun in Kalemie, southeast Congo, on Sept. 2, 1998. 

As a senator, Barack Obama supported legislation requiring the United States to cut off military aid to countries recruiting and deploying child soldiers.

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 Her name is Rosie, I could not find out where she served. Her eyes are dead, not a glimmer of the child seems to exist. What hells has this child already participated in, or seen. No education, just taught to kill.

Child soldiers in Thailand.

On Oct. 25, 2010, Mr. Obama acted to ensure that four countries found to use child soldiers – but which are also considered key national security interests ~ do not lose their US military assistance. Obama heeded the recommendation of a State Department review and waived application of a year-old law on child soldiers in the case of Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.

A child soldier patrolling the streets of a village in Chad.

Obama said he had “determined that it is in the national interest of the United States” to waive application of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act for the four countries.

This upwardly mobile young man is definitely dressed for success. 

Off to work we go!

My God, they’re just so cute!

This really must be the world we wish for our children. I mean, otherwise, why would we do it? Children don’t know any better. We can force them to pick up a gun as easily as we can a crayon. It is up to us. We are, after all, the adults.

A Somali government soldier demonstrates to children how 

to use a Kalashnikov rifle in Mogadishu, on Sept. 13, 2009.

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 Peace to all and to all our children, a good night.

I bet you’re a little conflicted, confused, maybe questioning this worldview even. Nah, you can’t have doubts. 

Just keep thinking… what would Jesus do? I sure it rhymes with “child” and “AK-47.”

Didn’t He say:

Never turn the other cheek.

Covet thy neighbor’s property. 

Shoot thy neighbor.

Let only the well-armed children inherit the earth.

He who owns the most toys wins.

Isn’t that the way it goes?

Hey, stand up and say it loud and proud! No pain, no gain!

Is this the world we created, or isn’t it?

Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed

Take a look at all the suffering we breed

So many lonely faces scattered all around

Searching for what they need

Is this the world we created?

what did we do it for?

Is this the world we invaded?

Against the law?

So it seems in the end

Is this what we’re all living for today?

The world that we created.

You know that every day a helpless child is born

Who needs some loving care inside a happy home

Somewhere a wealthy man is sitting on his throne

Waiting for life to go by.

Is this the world we created

we made it on our own

Is this the world we devastated

Right to the bone?

If there’s a God in the sky looking down

What can he think of what we’ve done

To the world that he created?