A new propaganda video shows off the brutal act.

Here's a challenge for people who think about organizations in 21st-century America: How do we demilitarize our notions of leadership?

We adults can bewail the use of child soldiers by all those thuggish brigades around the world. But as in The Lord of the Flies, those young people are just enacting the savageries of their elders. They are both victims and perpetrators.

Living in Sierra Leone gave me the awareness and adventure I was seeking. It also taught me a particularly chilling lesson: Any one of us can lose our humanity; especially children when they are made vulnerable.