RUSSIA’S STOLEN CHILDREN ARE BEING TAUGHT TO KILL — USING HAMAS’S PLAYBOOK:

ABC News Australia’s new documentary, Ukraine’s Stolen Children, released this week, brought me to an image I couldn’t shake: a young child holding a rifle, smiling proudly. The image was jarring for another reason. I had seen it before.

Not in Ukraine. In Gaza.

The countries are different, the wars are different, and the actors are certainly different. Russia is a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Their histories, ideologies, and objectives are not interchangeable. What was impossible to ignore, however, was the similarity in what children were being taught and the methods being used to teach them.

The documentary examines Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children, including children taken from orphanages, care facilities, and camps. More than 20,000 have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as deported or forcibly displaced, although the true number may be considerably higher. Yet it was what happens to some of these children afterward that caught my attention.

The countries are different, the wars are different, and the actors are certainly different. Russia is a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Their histories, ideologies, and objectives are not interchangeable. What was impossible to ignore, however, was the similarity in what children were being taught and the methods being used to teach them.

The documentary examines Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children, including children taken from orphanages, care facilities, and camps. More than 20,000 have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as deported or forcibly displaced, although the true number may be considerably higher. Yet it was what happens to some of these children afterward that caught my attention.

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