Pentagon sees 5 million child terrorists in Iraq

The Pentagon warns that if U.S. reconstruction efforts fail in Iraq, punishing unemployment could drive the country's next generation of workers to join the jihad.

In that event, America and the West potentially would face an army of as many as 5 million young terrorists.

Right now, Iraqis suffer from 50 percent unemployment, and the prospects are especially grim for the nation's youth, noted Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense at the Pentagon.

Iraq is largely a nation of children, he says, with some 40 percent of its population of 26 million under the age of 15. Only about 20 percent of the U.S. population is under 15, by comparison.

If economic opportunities don't improve, the children of Iraq represent "a potential pool of recruits for terrorism," Brinkley warned.

He added that despite their liberation from the clutches of tyrant Saddam Hussein, Iraqi youth currently have a "negative" impression of America due to deteriorating economic conditions.

"They have justified frustration," he said, adding that their resentment will only deepen if economic conditions don't change.

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He pointed out that the 9/11 hijackers were "middle class" and yet still hated America. One can only imagine the hate that will build among dislocated Iraqi youth facing dismal opportunities for employment, he warned.

That is why it is critical that the U.S. help the new Iraqi government rebuild the country's infrastructure and fund jobs programs, Brinkley argued in a C-span interview aired Wednesday on the program "Washington Journal."

The U.S. is already funding Iraqi reconstruction and security at a rate of $12 billion a month. The final price tag, according to the Baker report, could reach $2 trillion, which is equal to roughly two-thirds of the entire current federal budget.

In a speech Wednesday in Cleveland, President Bush also stressed the importance of supporting the young Iraqi government and rebuilding the Iraqi economy. He said the U.S. must stay in Iraq to prevent further erosion and a sense of "hopelessness" among Iraqi youth. Otherwise, they will be easy recruits for terrorists.

"I believe that frustration and hopelessness, because people don't have a sense of future, makes it easier for radical movements and radicals to be able to recruit," he said. "If you live in a society where you have no hope, then you're going to look for another form of false hope."

Bush asserted that promoting "democracy" as an alternative to radical Islam in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will "marginalize the recruiters and give hope to the recruitees."

He added that it's a universal desire among all peoples – Muslims, Jews and Christians alike – to want to live and work in freedom and peace, if they are given the opportunity.

"Most Muslim mothers want their children to grow up in peace," Bush said. "They're just like mothers in the United States."

However, a local talk-radio host in the audience suggested that the president's view may be overly optimistic given the intergenerational "indoctrination" of militant Islamism in the region.

"Going back to Iraq, sir, you mentioned Muslim mothers want their children to grow up in peace. The children of extremists, however, are being trained right now," he said. "We've seen the videos. We have seen the indoctrination -- schoolchildren being indoctrinated to hate Americans and to hate Jews.

"The next generations of terrorists are already being bred," he added. "Isn't it true that regardless of how long it takes to win in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war on terror will never, ever truly be ended?"

Bush responded that children of communists today have a different attitude toward the West, even though they were indoctrinated to hate Western ideals. He said that happened to youth in Russia, China and the Korean peninsula, but the spread of democracy has helped that generation warm up to the West, while at the same time marginalizing the radicals.

"That's why I'm such a strong believer in advocating the march of democracy in the Middle East. And I fully understand that people call me a hopeless idealist," he said. "But I also think it's realistic to understand (that) unless we change the conditions of how people live, it's going to be hard to marginalize those who prey upon the young."

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