“The Perfect Weapon for the Meanest Wars’’ is an article by Jeffrey Gettleman from the New York Times on the subject of child soldiers. All over Africa militias are fighting each other for control over certain areas. These militias have deployed four foot tall killing machine that terrorize, loot, and destroy village after village these weapons: child soldiers. Mozambicans have learned that children were the perfect weapon since they were easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless and most important in endless supply. There are 300,000 child soldiers worldwide experts say that the nature of the conflict changes especially in Africa. Years of struggle through war and politics have morphed from the idea or cause warlord led drives which essential
Ishmael Beah’s novel provides the historian with highly explicit illustrations of child soldier initiated violence. In a general sense, forcing children to commit war crimes was done for educational purposes. It was thought by factional and military leaders that juveniles would immediately become more accustom to death if they spilt the blood of a defenceless man. Beah explains how he “practiced killing the prisoners the way the Lieutenant had done it”. He asserts that “the person whose prisoner died the quickest would win the contest”.
Austin Sroczenski Mr. McDowell English A 10/4/15 A Long Way From Innocence In 1933, unknown to many parts of the world, Sierra Leone was in the middle of an internal war. As this brutal war continued on, both the Sierra Leone government, and the Revolutionary United Front began to use children as soldiers to fight this battle. The children used in combat are deceived greatly by army generals, in order to turn them into killers.
There is a problem in the world and something needs to be done of it. There are children, primarily in Africa, that are forced to massacre innocent men and women. These kids are called child soldiers. Child soldiers are kids who are associated in war. A popular book about child soldier is an autobiography by Ishmael Beah called A Long Way Gone.
The art of war passed through a fundamental transformation, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. Changes involved all aspects of warfare, strategy, operations, logistics and tactics. That period saw unprecedented economic, social, and political change. Therefore, the manner in which a given society wages war is the typical product of the whole societal, political, and economic system for that society. While the economic, societal and politic order that characterized the period between the religion wars and the French revolution had limited warfare; mass politics, nationalism and the industrial revolution which marked the era of the French revolution and the U.S. Civil War remade warfare from its strategic, operational, logistic
With the Ba’th turning these children into state obsessed machines, is it reasonable to suspect every child in these countries of being weapons when in combat? Did the way the Ba’th raised their youth make them effective fighters against other countries or did it rather put them in harms way? There are many stories of children being used as bombs in the War in Iraq. Is that war strategy that the Iraqi’s employed a result of the children being turned into state-driven
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.)
Can an antiquated lens provide an adequate examination and understanding of modern warfare? The theories of Carl von Clausewitz retain remarkable contemporary merit and relevance in explaining the critical elements affecting warfare in the modern era. Carl von Clausewitz’s theories of war endeavor to be comprehendible, comprehensive, and strategic. Clausewitz contends that the conduct of war itself is without doubt very difficult. But the difficulty is not that erudition and great genius are necessary to understand the basic principles of warfare.1 Clausewitz 's 1812 essay, the Principles of War, offers military commanders, with little campaign experience, a comprehendible, comprehensive, and strategic model for attaining victory in battle.
The Loss of Innocence When one thinks of childhood, images of little league baseball games, soccer and carefree days spent with family come to mind with the only worries are whether their room is cleaned and their homework is done, not knowing whether they will make it through the night should be the last thing a child has to worry about. Ishmael Beah was a former child soldier forced to fight in Sierra Leone’s civil war that consumed his home country in the 1990’s. Beah explains his hardships as “ I am from Sierra Leone, and the problem that is affecting our children is the war that forces us to run away from our homes, lose our families, and aimlessly roam the forests (Beah 199)”. Ishmael Beah’s autobiography,
In high school, I read A Long Way Gone from that reading it made me start appreciating my life even more. During my reading, I came to discover that the child soldiers did not have a typical childhood like the children nowadays. As a child soldier, their lives were taken from them at a very young age like between the years of six to eighteen years old. Imagine being that young being forced to give up your family and childhood to become a child soldier to kill and to commit other acts of violence. Because of the child soldiering the children saw different things that children should not be able to see like, piles of dead bodies, and large amount of blood.
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.
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.
When I think of a soldier, I think of a strong young man fighting for his country. When I think of a child, I get the image of a young child playing outside with no worries in the world and no responsibilities. However, this is not true, as there are millions of children who have become child soldiers and have been displaced in the world. What makes children want to become child soldiers? Children become soldiers for their governments, as they recruit them.
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.