See a video about this young man Here.
I've heard countless stories like this before... a young child's entire family slaughtered before them and then those children forced to become rebels themselves. In this case he was forced into the government army fighting the rebels... but there seems little difference. This same "tactic" is occurring, and has been occurring for many years now, in the Sudan's Darfur region -- on a huge scale.
What do you make of it? A few questions to ponder: what are we to make of Ishmael's killing? In what ethical category do we put his killings? What are we to do when we realize that perhaps large portions, perhaps even a majority of those rebel groups causing such atrocities may very well be all like Ishmael? Listen to the description he writes about regarding how he lined up six people and watched them suffer (for a day) before mecahnically killing them. This, to me, sounds only like something out of the Holocaust. It reminds me chillingly of stories of SS soldiers doing similar things to the Jews in the streets of Eastern Europe.
How do these stories affect, if it all, affect how we can perhaps come up with any answers on how to stop the seemingly perpetual violence in Africa? In a post-holocaust world, how do things like this, situation like this, spiral out of control and happen?
Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Darfur.... and there are many other places, and perhaps more to come.
Any thoughts?
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4 comments:
I honestly can't blame Ishmael for his past. His atrocities were born out of ignorance and not true cruelty. In World War II, most SS members were volunteers and adults, so I believe they are ethically responsible for their actions, but Ishmael was just a child and could not have had the moral capacity to understand that his actions were wrong. His problem demonstrates the need to get involved with Africa early. His situation also applies to the War on Terror. How do we expect to change minds when Palestinian children are paraded around in suicide vests with AK-47s at age 5 and 6? More organizations such as UNICEF, USAID, the UN and the Peace Corps need larger budgets for preventative or rehabilitative programs such as the program that changed Ishmael. Also, unless peace can somehow be established by an outside entity (UN, US or African Union), this cycle of violence will continue because it preys on the young and impressionable.
Certainly killing like what Ishmael has done is wrong and reasons for how this could happen are explained well above. However why are situations of modern day Holocaust not stopped? Why hasn't the UN stopped the Darfur conflict? It certainly comes down to self interest on the part of major powers. The UN knows there are problems in Darfur, but what self interest is involved, apparently not much. So the major powers that are part of the UN don't care to take on the large task of Darfur. They try to ignore it even though it is the morally right thing for the UN to stop the Darfur Holocaust, which should hopefully begin to stop more stories of Ishmael from happening.
It is difficult in any of these cases to hold any person who has been brainwashed to this extent responsible for those actions. The point at which war becomes so natural and so desperate is when it becomes to coerce and brainwash persons and worse yet children into this lifestyle. The only way this can stop is with intervention through NGO's and outside governments before it gets to this point. I now question how our soldiers would react to the battle by children and having to protect themselves while attempting to resolve such a situation.
No one would blame Ishmael and thousands of others like him for the circumstances he was born into. He was brainwashed into his hatred and that is why he has committed these crimes. However, if we get caught into analyzing the reasons why these people are like this, we forget the main idea...They still hate us and will do anything to harm us. We can try and change the culture they were raised in, but that is extremely difficult. We must understand that they want us dead and the only way to stop them is to kill them or capture them. Its sad and not fair, but we have to look out for our own safety first or we jeopardize everything we are fighting for.
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