Watcher of Weasels:

A Sickness of the Soul

During the coverage of the Iraqi election, you probably heard about the attempted suicide-bombing attack involving a kidnapped boy with Down's Syndrome.  As tragic as it was for this boy to lose his life, at least he didn't die an unwitting murderer as the so-called insurgents had originally planned...  he died because he was more afraid to walk through a checkpoint than he was of the friendly neighborhood terrorists who strapped a bomb to him, and the terrorists detonated the bomb remotely as he walked back towards them.  Or, perhaps it was more than simple fear...  perhaps he somehow sensed that he was being used to do something evil.

As deeply disturbing as that incident was on its own, Omar at Iraq the Model notes that this tactic appears to be part of a sinister new trend: “When a relative of mine (who has a mental handicap due to an Rh conflict at birth) told me a month ago that a group of men in a car tried to kidnap him as he was standing in front of the institution he periodically visits to get medicine and support waiting for his brother; I thought that he was imagining the whole story.  He said that they tried to force him into the car telling him not to be afraid and that they're from the ‘mujahideen and not going to hurt him’.  My relative, despite his handicap was moved by his survival instinct and managed to run away.  After I heard the other story, I began to connect between the two stories and to consider my cousin's story as a true one that uncovered a new miserable war technique that can come only from the sickest minds.”

Forgive me for trying to find a silver lining in this sickening turn of events, but the terrorists seem like they are having a bit of a recruitment problem, don't they?  And that these terrorists could be outsmarted by a couple of retarded kids certainly speaks volumes.  Anyway, now that we know what the terrorists are after, I hope someone has enough sense to start watching for the creeps trying to kidnap these kids...  and I hope the next kid they try to snatch manages to get away, as Omar's cousin did, or at least ends up becoming aware enough of what is happening to stop himself from killing anyone else.