Vietnam anyone?

[ACinKC]

First of all, we have our very own Laos (Pakistan). For those of you who don't remember, Laos provided a safe haven for the Viet Cong to move freely across their borders to attack US Forces, POLITICS dictated that we were NOT officially allowed to enter Laos to pursue these forces.  Now comes this little NUGGET of info.... darkly reminiscent of the late 60's.....

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 19, 2006 —  In America, six-year-olds are usually in first grade. In Iraq, some are being recruited by militias.

That's what U.S. soldiers say is going on in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, the stronghold of a radical cleric.

The militias are assembling gangs of as many as 100 children, some as young as six or seven. Their mission: to throw gasoline bombs and stones at passing U.S. convoys. The hope is that the troops will be lured into sniper ambushes.

The soldiers say they've seen young men with bandannas covering their faces, talking to kids before such incidents. Sometimes the children are given slingshots.

An aide to the cleric denies it. But soldiers say there's no mistaking what's going on. And they say they're not firing back because, as one lieutenant puts it, a single round fired anywhere near a gang of children would be "like the shot heard 'round the world."