Terror suspect was a lonely kid?

It wouldn't surprise me a bit to read that he was just such a child. I know a little about children that do not get the adult attention and guidance they need.

My own son turned to gangs when I was working about 55+ hours a week when he was around 12 years old. The gang mentality was this: We are now your family and we will always be there for you. My son ate it all up.

I could not say the same thing as I was never really there for him during that two year stretch. I was working myself to death, and did little more than work ungodly hours and sleep.

So, to see that this child..and I still consider him a child, was lonely and depressed and acted out makes sense to me. From the HuffPo link:

Internet postings purportedly written by a Nigerian charged with trying to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day suggest a fervently religious and lonely young man who fantasized about becoming a Muslim holy warrior.

Throughout more than 300 posts, a user named "Farouk1986" reflects on a growing alienation from his family, his shame over sexual urges and his hopes that a "great jihad" will take place across the world.

While officials haven't verified that the postings were written by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, details from the posts match his personal history.

What is incredibly ironic, for me, is the photo they use of the kid shows him wearing Nike gear..which is the height of American Capitalism.

A decade after my son and I were separated because of his 'acting-out' to the extreme, his self-realization that the gang took advantage of him and his loneliness is what haunts me the most. I did not see what was happening until it was too late to save him from himself or from them and their manipulations of him.

It took us years to find our way back to each other.

Sadly, I think this child will now pay the price for just wanting to belong to someone or some group.

I am of course reacting as a parent..not an American that feels violated by a wanna-be terrorist. Surely I would not give a rat's ass about this child's life if I reacted solely as an American. I would be just like the assholes that recruit such people..heartless and calculating..they use these types of people for their own horrific schemes.

Ah..compassion..it serves us well at times..