An extreme terrorist training camp for children was recently discovered by the Pakistani military within their country’s borders.

According to a January 6, 2010 CNN report, the media in Pakistan were first to break the news some time in the past month.

Spokespeople for the Pakistani military told CNN the compound, found in the former Taliban stronghold of Nawoz Kot, was apparently used to brainwash Pakistani children and youth between the ages of 12 and 18 into a suicide-bomber mentality.

There was enough room for more than 200 children at a time; children whose parents thought they were sending them to a school for better education and free food. But pamphlets were found which explained how to prepare suicide jackets, handle weapons and perform ambushes.

An expert in Taliban tactics described for CNN that the compound was painted with elaborate artwork of a glorious afterlife for suicide bombers; that there was information promising that death was better than life, and other possible distortions of the Islamic faith.

The expert, Zahid Hussein, reported that over 90 percent of suicide bombers are within that age group.

The Taliban has denied that the compound at Nawoz Kot was theirs (it was bombed over the summer).

Recent examples of suicide attacks remind us that the extreme terrorist mindset is widespread beyond one group or country. A Nigerian is suspected of being responsible for the attempted airplane bombing over Christmas. A Jordanian suicide bomber is assumed to have committed the attack that recently killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan. But the Associated Press reports that both al-Qaida and the Taliban are claiming responsibility for the CIA attack.

That children should be trained to follow in these footsteps and commit such acts, including the possible taking of their own lives, is unthinkable to peaceful citizens of many countries and faiths. However, it would not be the first time that children were used recklessly in the past century to achieve extreme and violent goals.

Hitler was training Germany’s youth from age ten and up to accept nothing less than a perfect Aryan society (see Hitler-Jugend – Hitler’s Youth). The Viet Cong used children within their villages to lure and defeat American troops in Viet Nam.

It may seem overwhelming to think that a terrorist attack can happen anywhere, at any time.

Yet, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Ephesians 6:12-13, NIV).