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While the recent war in Iraq posed a variety of ethical, moral and humanitarian questions for many of us, it was the headline of the local daily paper that caught my attention and challenged me to confront a potential area of volunteerism with which I am not particularly comfortable.

The headline, emblazoned across the front of the newspaper was clear. It quite simply read:

‘HIT SQUAD’
Saddam’s volunteer suicide bombers
(Adelaide Advertiser, 2 April 2003)

The story came complete with a full-colour photograph showing a bus full of Iraqi men, on their way to Baghdad, apparently ready, willing and able to blow up both Coalition forces and seemingly themselves.

While I have never been a fan of placing volunteering into a ‘box’ and labelling it in any specific way, the thought of suicide bombers being branded as volunteers was a stretch, even for my way of thinking.

Andy Fryar then proceeds to analyze exactly what we mean when we apply the words "volunteer" and "volunteering" to any action, showing the complexity of the definitions we sometimes take for granted.

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