More than 1 million Iraqi kids have seen their lives damaged by the latest war, and have become a generation ripe for the vengeful appeals of militias and insurgent groups, according to an Iraqi sociologist.
"There is no question that society as a whole is going to feel the effects in the future," Hassan Ali, who is working in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, told Newsweek. They have lost their parents and homes, watched as their communities were torn apart by the sectarian violence, he said.
Jonathan Powers, a former US Army captain who served in Iraq in 2003 and now directs a non-profit organisation working with kids there, told the magazine that the ongoing violence is creating a generation that is undereducated, unemployed, traumatised and, among boys in particular, ripe for the vengeful appeals of militias and insurgent groups.
Already some of these kids are taking up arms -- mostly against members of the opposite sect, whether Sunni or Shiite, but often against American troops as well.
"Instead of training them to rebuild their country, they are being trained to use weapons to destroy it," Powers says.
If the pattern isn't changed, "We will be fighting these same youths in the future for peace in the Middle East."
Many forces, says the magazine, are working against the Iraqi youth. The ongoing violence is forcing many families to move for safety reasons. Baghdad neighbourhoods used to be close-knit places where neighbours shared information and helped each other out regardless of sect or ethnicity, Newsweek says.
Parents watched after each other's kids; the children had a ready support network.
Today, refugees are surrounded by strangers thrown together by sect and defended by militias. Once wrecked, these families have little capacity to rebound.
While no reliable figures of kids orphaned or left fatherless by the war exist, Newsweek says the overwhelming majority of Iraqi civilians killed in the sectarian slaughter have been men between the ages of 18 and 40.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society says it's been seeing a stark increase in the number of households run by women -- a problem in traditional Iraqi society, where women rarely work outside the home.
Since September, Newsweek says millions of kids have had to abandon their education. The Ministry of Education estimates that only 30 per cent of the 3.5 million Iraqi elementary-age kids are attending school now, down from 75 per cent last year.
Part of the problem, Newsweek says, is that sectarian hatreds roiling society outside have found their way into the classroom. One teacher at a primary school in Baghdad, who asked not to be identified by name for her safety, says many parents pulled their kids out of her school when they learned it was being guarded by the Mahdi Army.
"We used to have over 600 kids, but now it is no more than 400," she says.
According to her, the number of Sunni children in particular is dwindling, replaced by Shiite youth.
Money clearly is an element of the militias' allure, the magazine says. Iraqi and US soldiers in the capital trade tales of kids working as spotters, couriers and fighters.