posted
I heard something in passing on Fox News as I was getting dressed this morning (okay, I was listening to them because everyone else had moved off the Iraq election story but Fox was providing further coverage).
First, let me say, "fair and balanced" is not really a good description of their coverage.
But this "caught my ear" and I can't find anything about it anywhere. According to the announcer, some terrorists used a Down's Syndrome boy as a human bomb, either teaching him to set it off himself or (ugh) detonating him remotely when he was in range of their target.
Did you hear anything about this?
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posted
That's just horrid. It's bad enough to manipulate children to be bombers in the first place. But children with handicaps... I am just... appalled.
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I'm just not clear on why this is a WORSE thing than an adult suicide bomber blowing up a group of people that included a disabled child?
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posted
It feels worse to me because someone is using a person who likely doesn't understand what is really going on to cause pain and harm to others. I guess (sadly) we've gotten used to destruction, but not (happily) to innocent people being used to cause it.
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posted
It feels worse to me because I suspect that the people who set it up did so because they figured the child would not be suspected of being a suicide bomber. So they are taking advantage of the child's disability, both because he probably didn't understand what was going on and as such didn't have to be convinced it was a noble thing to throw his life away for the cause, and because he had a better chance of getting somewhere where he could do more damage.
And finally, now any disabled person has suddenly become suspect. And some people who might not understand what is going on will have to be treated as potential suicide bombers.
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posted
Not to mention that at least a suicide bomber feels he is in the right adn gives up his life to kill his enimeis...not that that is a good thing, but it is far worse to subvert anyone, particularily a handicapped child, to do the dirty work for you.
A handicapped child would have even less chance of protecting himself, I think, than a non-handicapped child.
posted
I'm disgusted with the these kinds of acts, and targeting young people as the ones to carry them out in general. Let me say that up front.
They'll probably regret this. It will provoke outrage - more outrage than the enlistment of other young people for suicide attacks.
Why? I think the answer to that is a little more complicated than most people might think.
There are plenty of people with Down syndrome capable of embracing beliefs and making important choices. If this young person was a willing accomplice and knew the consequences, it's horrible, but no more horrible than the use of other young people.
OTOH, if he was just used as a tool and had no idea what would happen, it means they used him as a "bomb delivery system" and viewed him as such. That's worse - if there's such a thing as a hierarchical model for judging heinous acts after a certain point.
The world - the Western world, anyway - will assume the latter explanation. It serves to promote the image wanted about terrorists and boosted by common stereotypes of people with Down syndrome.
But we'll never really know. This is all just my personal take on it. Don't know what else anyone else in the disability community is saying about it, if anything. If I find out anything, I'll post it here.
posted
sndrake, it seems to me that the groups behind suicide bombings (as distinct from the bombers themselves) view ALL their "volunteers" as bomb-delivery devices. You'll note the leaders don't generally volunteer themselves, or recruit close relatives.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I get your point. I developed contempt for terrorist activities and making a fetish of martyrdom back when the IRA was doing a lot of it.
The point I was trying to make is that we can't really know if the person with Down syndrome was a willing bomb carrier who knew what the consequences would be. IMO, that would make it no worse - or better - than the enlistment of other young people.
It does make a kind of difference - as opposed to loading him up without him knowing what would be happening to him. That would mean they regarded him as an animal and used him as such.
Both are detestable. But I don't think anyone will ever know which is the case.
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