Suicide Bomber Pardoned

[Inigo_Montoya]

From here. I’m not a bigot but …

A 14 year-old in this part of the world is old enough to be a combat veteran. When you catch a combat veteran wearing a suicide vest you don’t pardon him and send him skipping out the front door. The kid was indoctrinated and coached to the point where we was embarking on (presumably) his first and only mission. Does anyone really believe he’s seen the error in his ways and will live the life of a devout “practitioner of peace?”

I keep thinking about that scene in Good Fellahs: “You broke your cherry!”

[Spit]

Well, perhaps this gesture of good will can turn the kid around.

I highly doubt it, but perhaps.

Furthermore, I don’t see how talking about this could be construed as being bigoted- The kid was caught red-handed with the suicide vest. If nothing else, people should be upset about a possible teen suicide. (and the adults condoning the behaviour)

[Malacandra]

@Inigo Montoya

From here. I’m not a bigot but …

A 14 year-old in this part of the world is old enough to be a combat veteran. When you catch a combat veteran wearing a suicide vest you don’t pardon him and send him skipping out the front door. The kid was indoctrinated and coached to the point where we was embarking on (presumably) his first and only mission. Does anyone really believe he’s seen the error in his ways and will live the life of a devout “practitioner of peace?”

Any reason why he shouldn’t? The people he was taught to view as hateful monsters have shown him mercy and compassion. I’d give him a chance. The sick fucks who were willing to send him on the mission in the first place… eh, not so much.

[Stanislaus]

From the BBC story:

Hamid Karzai said: “[His parents] sent him to study at a madrassa (religious school). The enemy of Islam deceived him…”
Rafiqullah’s father, Matiullah, said he had been unaware of his son’s actions and agreed the boy had been deceived by teachers. He said when he had asked about his son he was not given an answer

He crossed the border and was met by a man who gave him a suicide vest. Rafiqullah said he did not want to carry out the attack but the man threatened to kill him.

Despite hard-core indoctrination in an isolated environment, he did not want to go through with the attack, and was ultimately threatened with death to force him into it. . Mad-eyed fanatic he is not.

[Ferret_Herder]

That article is missing some details from the one I read.

When Rafiqullah balked at being given the suicide mission, he was threatened by a man named Abdul Aziz, he said.

“I said I was afraid to carry out the suicide attack. Abdul Aziz pointed a gun at me and said ‘I’ll kill you if you don’t’,” Rafiqullah told the Associated Press.

[Inigo_Montoya]

Well, as long as he promises someone named Abdul Aziz (American equivalentof “Mike Smith”) pointed a gun at him I guess we should believe him. If only I had a dollar for every whopper made up by every 14 year-old who got themselves in trouble. I would be curious to know if his pardon was in any way dependent on information about The Sick Fucks who put him up to it.

And as I think about it, whether or not the kid was reluctant or rabid, what could Karzai do about it? He got to choose between making a child martyr or releasing a possible terrorist. What a messed up sitch. I hope the kid does get himself back, but the whole thing just screams, “Sucker!”

I know hate is wrong, but how do you not hate The Sick Fucks? Jiminy, getting a 12 year-old to saw off a guy’s head? Dressing a 6-year old up in a vest? I guess there was no other way to handle this story, but how do we not grow to hate these guys?

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Inigo Montoya

Well, as long as he promises someone named Abdul Aziz (American equivalentof “Mike Smith”) pointed a gun at him I guess we should believe him.

Well, the fact that he didn’t actually blow himself up when he was stopped might be a subtle hint that he wasn’t too keen on the idea.