Where innocence dies.

On September 8th near the entrance to Camp Eggers in the ISAF compound in Kabul, a small group of children and teenagers who were part of the non-profit organization Skateistan were selling trinkets and chewing gum to to the civilians and officers in the compound before they were to go to school in the afternoon. They did this regularly in an attempt to make some small amount of money to help their poverty stricken families.

As one of the teenagers part of the group walked a short distance away to retrieve water from a well, he heard a loud bang and was thrown to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he saw the bodies of his friends lying on the ground. He ran towards them crying in anguish, but police stopped him from putting himself through more pain placed him in car to be taken to the hospital with other survivors of the explosion.

A tragic loss

Shortly before the explosion a 13 year old boy walked through a number of heavily guarded check points towards the ISAF compound in Kobul carrying only a backpack, once near the entrance of Camp Eggers and only a few meters away from the Skateistan group he detonated the explosive he was carrying in is backpack.

**WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES**

RT story

Aljezeera story

According to reports, this was the 55th suicide bombing in Afghanistan this year.

The level of violence and death in the middle east is disturbing to say the least, but this event specifically has impacted me greatly. These children tried desperately to provide a safe and educational environment for other young people in Kabul, they tried to preserve innocence in a place where pain and suffering are as common as a hot day. These children did not know what it was like to live in a place where you can walk out the door and not fear being killed, they did not know what it was like to live in a place where equality and tolerance were accepted and ignorance and hate denied, but they wanted to create that place...a peaceful Afghanistan.

I say to all the victims of this tragedy and their families, please continue and strive for peace and don't be weighed down by the chains of hate which criminals wear with pride, continue to spread the message of tolerance those children who died that day expressed throughout their short lives.

People have tried to bring some hope to Afghanistan, like Deborah Rodriguez "Kabul Beauty School" ( an American woman goes to teach and give women hope with Cosmotology lessons) and "Three Cups of Tea" building a School for girls.

It's a shame children are going through this in this world. I can't even imagine living like that.

Alot of children in America and indeed the West in general don't know how well they have it, do they?

ETA: S&F

reply to post by Openeye

Honestly, I am not trying to make a point, I'm just looking for your thoughts.

These children did not know what it was like to live in a place where you can walk out the door and not fear being killed, they did not know what it was like to live in a place where equality and tolerance were accepted and ignorance and hate denied, but they wanted to create that place...a peaceful Afghanistan.

There has been, as you say, a suicide bombing there roughly every five days. The fighting is not just against the West, it includes Muslims from one sect fighting those of another. This is a place which does not, and has not, known peace in their lifetimes.

I say to all the victims of this tragedy and their families, please continue and strive for peace and don't be weighed down by the chains of hate which criminals wear with pride, continue to spread the message of tolerance those children who died that day expressed throughout their short lives.

Given the situation, what do you think should be done? Striving for peace is a good thing, but what does it mean? Pull all Western influences from the Middle-East? Persuade Muslims to stop fighting each other? Stop the violent spread of Islam into Africa somehow?

Whatever plan we come up with, we should remember that people are being killed every day, day after day. What do we do?