Biting the British bullet

The British Broadcasting Corporation up-to-the-minute news site has just cottoned on to the existence of an amateur video, which has been doing the rounds on the internet for quite a few weeks now, and why I bring this to your attention is two-fold: One point being that the BBC is no longer as reliable as it was once reputed to be, and two, it has fallen into the despicable habit of Pakistan bashing at every opportunity it gets. This out-of-date, as far as 'current news stories is concerned, video purports to show a gang of children, some of them as young as three or four years old, 'playing at being suicide bombers and, according to the BBC was filmed in the border area of either Pakistan or Afghanistan but, again according to the BBCs 'sales title, it portrays 'Pakistani children when, if the truth be told as it should, they could equally well be Afghan. Having viewed the video some time ago, it really is quite disturbing; it is actually questionable as to whether or not the children were acting spontaneously or, as appeared more likely judging from their somewhat stilted actions, were being instructed in what to do by whoever, no one seems to know their identity, was behind the camera. Frankly, an organisation such as the BBC really shouldnt stoop to 'promoting such things without having first verified the veracity of their contents and neither should it so blatantly refer to the children as being 'Pakistani when they may very well not be which brings me to the point of children and violent games. To claim that such a 'game if this is what it was, accurately depicts the psychological damage done to children, who are exposed to violence on a regular basis, shows complete ignorance of the games played by millions of children in the BBCs very own backyard of Britain. Generations of children there that grew up and are growing up are immersed in some extremely violent games indeed as are children all over the world. The advent of silent movies, almost a 100 years ago now, in which heroes rescued women tied to railway tracks seconds before they were to be ground to bits by oncoming steam trains promptly gave the games children play a new dimension. In all probability the generations of children growing up there even 300 years before movies hit the scene, likely played at hanging each in public places for a variety of misdemeanours including having poached rabbits and deer to fill their starving bellies or, later on when firearms became 'common emulated the dastardly deeds of 'heroes such as the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin and without the BBC being around to report the inherent psychological dangers in these bloodthirsty pastimes, the children grew up none the worse for their bit of fun. After both the First and Second World Wars it was customary for British children to spend some fairly death defying and death dealing hours acting out blood curdling scenes in which they massacred Germans along with other enemies both real and imagined and, when they werent doing this they let out ear-splitting cowboy 'yipees while they massacred red Indians, yet grew up to peacefully, visit both Germany and America and even, this will surprise the BBC, eventually turned into fairly responsible adults some of whom may very well be employed by the aforementioned corporation which should take a serious look at British youngsters before indicating that ours are seriously damaged goods. It is pertinent to point out at this juncture, and to point a seriously judgmental finger, that anyone residing in, or operating out of, a country which legally issues shotgun licences to children as young as seven years old as Britain does, has absolutely no right to criticise the actions, or 'staged actions, of children belonging to other nations. That country recently admitted to having issued shotgun licenses to at least 13 children under the age of 10 years, even though the British Association of Chief Police Officers considers that children under the age of 10 years should be banned from using shotguns. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation claims that such children only use shotguns for sporting pastimes on farms and that they are always supervised by responsible adults. But, as everyone knows all to well, children will be children and the fact that they have been actively trained to use a firearm will, undoubtedly, encourage them to show off amongst not so 'fortunate friends and 'accidents do happen, especially when over confidence becomes an issue. Under the existing British law there is no minimum age for applying for a shotgun certificate and the decision, as to whether or not to grant an application, is in the hands of the applicants local senior police officer: Statistics recently released by 51 British county police forces under the Freedom of Information Act show that 7,071 shotgun licences were issued to children under the age of 18 years in the two-year period from 2008-2010. Therefore, if even a single one of these decides to 'play at being Rambo, that country, quite unlike our own, has only itself to blame. The writer is a Murree-based freelance columnist. As disturbed as some members of the Congress are that they have not been fully consulted or been given the opportunity to authorise the use of force, many are deeply concerned about the lack of clarity about what they perceive, as a vagueness about the plan, commitment, and outcome of this military engagement. Senior Republican foreign policy leader, Richard Lugar (R-IN), complained: "The plan is simply not there. The objectives, the end game is not apparent." While Democrat Jim McGovern (D-MA), expressed the concern of many saying: "I have this feeling of uneasiness, because of the lack of clarity of this mission." * * * In the lead up to the Iraq war, I pressed the Democratic Party to pass a resolution opposing the war, unless and until then President Bush defined "the costs, consequences, and terms of commitment" entailed. I also cautioned: "We should never consider military engagement in a country whose people, history and culture we do not know." Efforts to stop that war failed and the results, too painful to consider, are still with us. The same questions that should have been answered before we invaded Iraq should also have been asked and answered before hostilities began with Libya. The fact that they were not, and that lessons have not been learned, is deeply troubling. The writer is the President of the Arab American Institute, Washington DC.