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I'm a cynical misanthrope, as I'm sure many of my friends and acquaintances would agree. Something about the latest atrocity in Gaziantep (Turkey) turns my stomach, though.
Suicide bombings are abhorrent, this goes without saying. But to use a child - whose brain is up to eleven years away from full development - to do your dirty work, as appears to have happened here (although Turkish authorities may be backtracking on this claim)?
12 - 14 is, obviously, old enough to tell right from wrong - assuming, of course, that the way "right from wrong" is taught is not manipulative. I don't want to use the word brainwashed, but I think it could be appropriate - but to be able to see the nuance in a situation when you're being flooded with information from only one side of the argument? Grown adults have trouble with this.
I said suicide bombings are abhorrent. But to manipulate a child into taking part in one is, in my opinion, at least as much so and worse besides.
