Hey, Kids, Let's Go To Camp!

It's a regular rite of summer in this country...and maybe fall, spring and winter, too, for that matter. Every year, thouseands of kids head off to camp in order to learn to play jazz, basketball, chess, outdoor camping and living, or perhaps spend a week talking to scientists about space flight. It is the express duty of parents in this country to make certain that their children have optimal opportunities to become the best they can be at whatever they (or the parent) think is the singular talent that is going to make the child smart, rich, gifted...whatever. It's this attitude of ""go for it all" that was probably behind Kevin Hart's announcement the other day that he had decided to play football next year for The University of California instead of the universities in Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Oklahoma who had been recruiting him heavily. As it turns out, NONE of them had recruited the 6'5" 290-pound offensive lineman at all...he made the whole thing up, got national exposure and probably wishes he could go someplace and die right about now. I've got the place.
It seems the Iraqis have a different idea about camp for kids. The recently-released video tape of kids as young as 11 in "camp" showed a different kind of camp: training with automatic weapons, training to search cars and clear buildings was all done in earnest. Footage of youngsters posing in suicide vests and/or shouting for the camera whil brandishing AK-47s, grenade launchers and other military weaponry was a bit shocking to me. According to the report, we were seeing "the new generation of mujahedeen."
You'll recall that the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia made liberal use of children as their agents of death as well, so this is not a new idea, but it IS a disturbing one.
Summer camp just isn't what it used to be.