Child Soldiers In Beah's Long Way Gone

While some may argue that these children should be responsible for the mass killings of innocent people, they forget that they are dependent on their commanders. Their commanders constantly supply them with food, money, and drugs, making them rely more and more on their commanders for these supplies. Although these children did kill many people, they were unaware of their actions when ordered to commit this crime therefore should not be held accountable. Certainly it could be said that children enlisted in the military want to avenge the death of loved ones; while this is a good point, it fails to account for how clueless these children were about soldier life. These child soldiers think that being enlisted will lead to a more secure life with shelter and food, unfortunately they do not realize what they have to do in order to receive that kind of life.

Even though the kids ages eight and eighteen are training, fighting, and carry very powerful guns that could cause destruction. The kids are victims. These kids are victims because most of them are being forced to do this. People state that child soldiers are criminals because they’re not getting prosecuted for all the actions that they are doing. But what people don’t know is why the kids keep doing all this crime in wars.

PTSD involves re-experiencing the trauma, avoidance of things that are reminders of the trauma, and an uncomfortable state of arousal usually connected with readiness to avoid re-experiencing a trauma (Piotrowski and Range). Thousand of soldiers who come home from all different wars get diagnosed with PTSD and struggle to have a normal life after war. High school students do not understand how hard it is to live a typical lifestyle while suffering with the psychological impacts of post war. In the novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry had to learn about his emotional “on/off switch”. This was how henry was able to kill people during battle because he had to not let his emotions get to him and had to pick when to be emotional or not.

All around the world, children are being forced out of their homes and onto battlefields to fight for what they are led to believe is the right thing. Military commanders who are short on troops take over villages and force the children to fight for the government. Though some of them have committed unspeakable acts, many people believe that these children deserve amnesty, as they were forced into their positions. Also, they can’t refuse the government for threat of death. Because of this and more, child soldiers should clearly be granted amnesty.

Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down” (61). Okonkwo knew that it was bad to kill someone from the village but he didn’t want to look weak. He knew that if he would of done it in front of his people they would of exiled him or killed him. Later on when he accidentally shot a guy and was exiled for seven years. Times were getting harder for him and his

Child soldiers are practically forced into fighting, have seen loved ones brutally killed or tortured, and have been drugged. These actions were not choices by these kids but choices that were made for them. Therefore, child soldiers should be given amnesty for the crimes that they did not want to commit, rather than the ones they wanted to commit. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they were forced to fight, have been drugged, and have witnessed their own families being killed or tortured. Children have been the main victims in these attacks against people.

In the artical “Resistance during the Holocaust” Jews would be put to work “there assignment was to dispose bodies of the gas chambers victims…”(3). This is telling you that the people who didn’t fight their families died in the gas chambers because they were not useful or to old to work. This is why if you fought your family would have a better chance of survivel because even if they were to old to work you could still fight and if they don’t fight then they would automatically die. Also I would want to fight for my freedom not follow the Nazi’s rules that could get all of my family killed. Some may say that you should stay passive because you could just listen to the Nazi’s rules and if they needed you then they would put you to work like playing the violins.

As the clan killed Ikemefuna, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (61). The whole time Okonkwo was in exile, he knew he had lost his place in his clan. As soon as he was thrown out, he began to plan for his return. Okonkwo’s loyalty to his clan was larger than his life.

Marcus was previously kicked out by his mother for being apart of gangs and not having his life together. Usually approaching a parent who has kicked out that child, it is terrifying for that child to return to that parent, but Marcus did just that, knowing very well his mother could have denied him a secound chance. Another example of how courage is when he left his gang. He could have easily met harsh consequences when he left, including beating, or worse, he could have been killed. He faced these dangers head on, still proceeding with leaving the gang.

Hundreds of children are forced to put in the army but some kids join on their own and suffer years and when they try to come out they come out worse than when they joined. They come out with broken bones or even missing body pieces, some kids don't even make it back out they die or they kill them before even starting war. Poverty kills children and also eventually kills family because of the children dying, the government doesn't care about children but they do care about winning a war. “Special attention will be given to the young women and girls, who are likely to have suffered sexual abuse, so that they can rejoin their communities without the stigma associated with such abuse.” young women suffer more than male soldiers, females are abused sexually and are thrown back to there