Cord Byrd: “Americans are rightfully horrified and alarmed at the news reports and stories about so-called ``child soldiers''…”

“Americans are rightfully horrified and alarmed at the news reports and stories about so-called ``child soldiers'' pressed into service in paramilitary armies around the world. In Cambodia, the Sudan, Lebanon, and elsewhere, we gaze into the hard-eyed stares of barefoot ten-year-olds cradling well-worn rifles and machine guns. These children have known nothing but violence. It is hard to imagine how they will ever be able to move beyond such violence, should peace ever be established in their homelands. They do not know how to live under the rule of law, only under the rule of might makes right. They have a very casual attitude about killing other human beings. We certainly would not want our own children to experience such a life, and we would not want such a generation of casual killers to grow up amongst us. Yet, in the midst of all of our affluence, we are rearing a generation that is appallingly casual about violence, a generation that is appallingly self-centered about getting--or taking-- what they want.”