To start, the children are given large amounts of drugs and alcohol. This harms their bodies and the way they think, leaving them doing unbearable things that they would never think of ever doing. According to Child Soldiers Should Be Prosecuted, “While fighting in war, the recruiters of child soldiers use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and to enable them to commit acts they would not normally commit (Author)”. As read in the quote the children have no conscious over what they are doing. The drugs being used are brainwashing everything the child may think, so the only thing they can do is follow the orders of who they think is in charge. As I read in the article, Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators, “The drugs, often cocaine mixed with gunpowder, brainwash the children to the point where they would rather not escape from the horror unraveling around …show more content…
These are all injuries that may have occurred to you or somebody you know, leaving you in pain for a couple of days or even a couple of weeks. Children soldiers are left with battle scars bringing them pain every day of their life. Although the children are harming others under the command of their leader, they are also harming themselves. The article Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators brought me to the conclusion of just how many children are injured in battle. “In the last ten years over two million children have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma(Author)”. All of these young soldiers suffer in a way hard to handle for most young children. A child in specific named Khadar was seriously injured while in battle. After the U.S. forces entered a compound in Afghanistan where Khadr and others were located bombs were through injuring many men and women… and Khadar. As written in The Child Soldier on Trial at
First of all, child soldiers go to extremes for such little things like having to ask for thing to be given to them. In the book by Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, an actual child soldier who is now rehabilitated shared his experiences through the war in Sierra Leone. It says, “We placed a bucket over the cook’s head and pushed him around the kitchen until he burned his hand on a hot boiling pot and agreed to put more milk in our tea,” (Beah, 2007). This demonstrates how dangerous they can be to innocent people, even those that are trying to help. They hurt those no matter what, for their own desires and sometimes they just do this for their own entertainment.
The Effects On Child Soldiers In the book, A Long Way Gone, it said, “‘Bullet wounds,’ I casually replied” (Beah 154). In the book, Beah is so mentally changed that getting shot is not even a big deal to him anymore. Most child soldiers just like him have been desensitized to these kinds of problems. Using children in war can cause them a countless amount of mental and physical pain as Beah describes in his book
In the world today, there is more than 25 countries who still actively use children in warfare. Child soldiers are human beings under the age of 18 who participate in military actions. They are evidently cheaper to maintain and to train than adult soldiers. They are also more loyal and obedient because the young respect their elders. It has been noted that estimately, 300 thousand children were recruited to fight and perform in war (Child Soldiers.)
Many of the child soldiers who were able to leave the war had a tremendous amount of problems. “But at night some of us would wake up from nightmares, sweating, screaming, and punching our own heads to drive out the images that continued to torment us even when we were no longer asleep.” (148) The child soldiers who were rescued and sent to one of the rehabilitation centers still had the same mentality. They were still addicted to drugs, and to killing.
Child soldiers have been a major issue in countries all over the world for a very long time. For example, Afghanistan is recruiting children to become a part of the Taliban, one of the largest terrorist groups in the country. A theme presented by Ishmael Beah in the book A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier is that when all is lost, there is always hope. He went through brutal drugs and a dark childhood while he was in a civil war but he still was able to push through it and find happiness.
“Most of the kids are forced into fighting”. This tell me that there were actually kids that were forced to join so they can fight. “ Their choices are minimum they are just following orders,rather than making their own choices.” This tells me that they might be afraid to make their own choices that’s why they do what they are asked to because if they don’t do what they are asked to they might get killed. “Children are forced by commanders through false promises,drugs, and things which you can’t even imagine, to kill innocent civilians, other children and even their own families.”
According to the Summative Essay Child Soldiers, children are given drugs, alcohol to get brainwashed into thinking what they are forced to do is an okay normal thing. “They were forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol. The drugs, often cocaine mixed with gunpowder, brainwashed the children to the point where they would rather not escape from the horror unraveling around them. I personally believe anyone who has to succumb to such horror and atrocities should not be prosecuted for the crimes they committed.” (Summative Essay Child Soldiers)
This literary piece “The Making and Unmaking of a child soldier” by Ishmael Beah, unravels aspects of the world often looked over. The book opens an eye on how child soldiers are used as spawn for civil wars for ruthless warlords over drug empires in Sierra Leone. Children are forced to become soldiers to serve for military and save their country, Sierra Leone. Child soldiers are also forced to work and there are many different jobs which are given to child soldiers.
Many young children under aged have been taken in by the government. They are being held captive tell they are drugged enough and brainwashed to go out and kill or to be killed. They are forced to train to kill under the influence of drugs and they are hardly aware of what they or doing. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because of the absents of their minds and them not being able to process what they are doing. These children are often seen as targets because they are under aged and not able to take responsibility for their actions so they are targeted to be able to kill without punishment.
Even though this may be true, it still suggests that the acts these children are committing are not their doing but instead the orders of their officers. The extraordinary circumstances that Wessells talks about forces the kids to fight for their lives. Young children are taught to act as killing machines, destroying anything in their path. That’s a far world away from playing soccer with friends or holding a lemonade stand. Therefore, while these kids are off fighting to stay alive, people in charge still seem to be to be taking the easy way out and using jail time as the first answer instead of
Although child soldiers have done many horrendous things like kill innocent people and forcibly recruit more children, there is a reason for everything and in this case is being forced and the influence of drugs and alcohol. These children may seem dangerous in every aspect but always remember that they never choose to commit these atrocious crimes. In fact, as you finish reading, keep in mind that they are just like every other normal human being out there except they were not as lucky as you are because they unfortunately were those who became child
Also, according to the Invisible Children Association, “...child soldiers are often forced into fighting through false promises. They are also forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol.” This shows how they are forced and they think what they are doing is okay because they are brainwashed. These children are being misled and sometimes threatened to commit horrible acts, that they wouldn’t do if they knew what was happening. But these children were never taught what is right and wrong.
An unhealthy obsession with guns, being drugged to make killings seem normal, and being undoubtedly loyal to commanders is only part of what a child soldier is. Child soldiers can be dangerous and make up many armies in war-torn countries. In much of the world, usually in unstable countries, when conflict breaks out, children can quickly be swept up and put on the front lines to fight. Children may carry ten-pound guns and use bullets twice the size of their fingers. Some children are old enough to understand what they are doing, and others have no idea.
Assignment page Video Where many children all over the world merrily and freely live under the protection of the law, for others, this is a distant reality, they live in a world where they’re battling poverty, stripped of their childhood and basic human rights are expunged, they’re the innocent victims of conflict, and war is made to seem their one and only duty, not to mention that these are children no more than 10 years of age. They are put into a situation where it’s to kill or be killed. The United Nations defines a child soldier as, “Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity.” Since the past 15 years, child soldiers are being used in almost every region of the world. Unlike most children, who go to school, they’re abducted from their families and forced into becoming a child soldier, where living conditions are beyond imaginable.
Have you ever imagined growing up on a life of drugs, war, crime, and seeing things that many adults won’t dare to ever see? In many countries around the world, this is what many children have to deal with. There is an occurring issue of people across Africa and parts of Asia using children as soldiers in war. They act and take upon the roles of real combatants, causing the people of the public to act in different ways. It’s been well documented that these children have used guns and war tactics, and committed various illegal and illicit acts of violence.