When abused children come of age: Auschwitz, The Passion and Abu Ghraib
By Jane Stillwater, http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/

Regarding the evils that lurk in the hearts of men, we civilized people keep asking ourselves, "What were they thinking!"

Just what drove the Nazis to commit the evils of the concentration camp? And, in The Passion, why did they keep flogging and flogging and flogging Jesus? And why have Americans committed such a long list of atrocities -- slavery, the Trail of Tears, the brutal Civil War (51,000 casualties at Gettysburg, 24,000 casualties at Chancellorsville), Wounded Knee, the Klu Klux Klan lynchings, the Dresden fire storm, the Marine deaths at Parris Island, the massacre at Mai Lai, classes in torture at Fort Benning and the abominations at Abu Ghraib?

What do all these murderers, torturers and sadists have in common? Three things: No empathy, hardened hearts and rotten childhoods.

How many times do I have to say this? "Adults treat other adults the way they themselves were treated as children." If we want a perfect world, we must learn to put away the switches, the paddles and the belts and to keep our children out of the woodshed.

Highly recommended reading: John Gray's book "Children are from Heaven".