To: SARMAN who wrote (194183 ) 7/31/2006 10:33:13 PM From: Hawkmoon Respond to However, like I told you and your buddies before, you will be paid for you efforts (pay per post scheme). During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran's forces were no match for Saddam Hussein's professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child's neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them. ocnus.net filmforum.org Government-allied groups were known to recruit children during the Iran-Iraq war. The Hezbollahi organization for example made announcements in various newspapers inviting registration with the sole entry requirement being a ''belief in God'' and sympathy for the Hezbollahi. Age was ''unimportant'': according to the advertisement, students could range from 14 to 90 years of age.[14] The leadership of Iran also urged youths to take an active part in fighting.[15] In a series of rulings issued in the autumn of 1982, Ayatollah Khomeini declared that parental permission was unnecessary for those going to the front, that volunteering for military duty was a religious obligation, and that serving in the armed forces took priority over all other forms of work or study. Various sources reported that children were indoctrinated into participating in combat.[16] They were given "keys to paradise" and promised that they would go directly to heaven if they died as martyrs against the Iraqi enemy.[17] Gulf war statistics about prisoners, casualties and their ages are unreliable, but according to the International Committee of the Red Cross at least 10 per cent of Iranian prisoners were under 18.[19] Iranian officers captured by the Iraqis claimed that nine out of ten Iranian child soldiers were killed. id.gov.jo id.gov.jo
