Is it nature or nuture? A new video has surfaced showing a mere child beheading a captive. The jihad bloggers will of course immediately seize on this story as evidence of the inherent depravity of all Muslims but my more thoughtful right leaning friend, Michael van der Galien has a better view that aligns with my own.*
While it can't be denied that some human beings are born with defective hard wiring in the brain that predisposes them to violence, I believe that's an exception - not the norm. It's much more likely that children born into an environment of violence are conditioned to accept it as normal behavior. Although this beheading happened in Pakistan, one needs to look at the
children of Iraq to see that this is more likely the case.
About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey [of about 2,500 youngsters] by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
...Many Iraqi children have to pass dead bodies on the street as they walk to school in the morning, according to a separate report last week by the International Red Cross. Others have seen relatives killed or have been injured in mortar or bomb attacks.
..."Some of these children are suffering one trauma after another, and it's severely damaging their development," said Said Al-Hashimi, a psychiatrist who teaches at Mustansiriya Medical School and runs a private clinic in west Baghdad. "We're not certain what will become of the next generation, even if there is peace one day," Al-Hashimi said.
...In the study, schoolteachers were asked to determine whether randomly selected students showed any of 10 symptoms identified by the World Health Organization as signs of trauma. Other symptoms included voluntary muteness, declining performance in school or an increase in aggressive behavior.
Children take their cues from the world around them. There are numerous studies drawing a nexus between violent television programming and video games and aggressive behavior in children. Why then should we be surprised when children who grow up in a war zone mimic the adults around them?
Violence begets violence and it seems to me that this study provides yet another reason that the US should withdraw from the occupation of Iraq even if it results in a greater civil war in the immediate aftermath of our leaving. I don't see how that outcome can be avoided, no matter when we leave. In the interim, do we really want a whole new generation of Iraqis to grow up seeing US troops killing their friends, family and countrymen?
We've already lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the adults of Iraq. I don't see how it can possibly serve our long term interests to poison the minds of future generations against us.
*:[Post edited in response to Michael's comment]
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