Doesn't get much lower than this

One wonders what kind of perverse ideology could lead to this? Can there be any "negotiations" or "peace brokering" in such a culture?

March 20

Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday.
The vehicle was stopped at the checkpoint but was allowed through when soldiers saw the children in the back, said Major General Michael Barbero of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.
"Children in the back seat lowered suspicion. We let it move through. They parked the vehicle, and the adults ran out and detonated it with the children in the back," Barbero said.
The general said it was the first time he had seen a report of insurgents using children in suicide bombings. But he said Al-Qaeda in Iraq is changing tactics in response to the tighter controls around the city.
A US defense official said the incident occurred on Sunday in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district, a mixed neighborhood adjacent to Sadr City, which is predominantly Shiite.
After going through the checkpoint, the vehicle parked next to a market across the street from a school, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"And the two adults were seen to get out of the vehicle, and run from the vehicle, and then followed by the detonation of the vehicle," the official said.
"It killed the two children inside as well as three other civilians in the vicinity. So, a total of five killed, seven injured," the official said.
Officials here said they did not know who the children were or their relationship to the two adults who fled the scene. They had no information about their ages or genders.
"The brutality and the ruthlessness of this enemy hasn't changed," said Barbero, deputy director of regional operations of the Joint Staff. "They are just interested in slaughtering Iraqi civilians, to be very honest."

Old Poem

I haven't posted anything for awhile. Here's a poem I wrote many years ago based on a real life family incident.

REQUIEM FOR A FEATHERWEIGHT

The bird had shown some signs of dying
Long before it was our family's turn
To make a pleasant evening for the Pastor
Who in return, was rendering, just for us,
A reverent, though obligatory prayer.

But still, we were surprised when half-way through,
The cage began to turn upon its hook
And sprinkle light green feathers on the floor.
The bird, deciding then, he'd die full tilt,
Writhed and shrieked his way aroung the cage
Right through my sister's scream, which broke
The prayer in mid-petition.

Our guest, meanwhile, embarrassed for a time,
Recovered to his everlasting credit
And, improvising deftly on the spot,
Intoned a mini-requium for birds
To drop the budgie neatly in his tracks.

Afterwords I thought it skillful
Our parakeet could wrest a blessing
From a fleshly paraclete, though I suppose
Technically, a sparrow, should he fall,
Registers as sure, and dies as well.