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Argumentative Essay On Child Soldiers

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In the past ten years, the use of child soldiers has provoked over two million deaths, one million orphans, six million injured or permanently disabled, and ten million children diagnosed with psychological trauma (“Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators?”). Children in the military fight for various reasons: to sacrifice themselves, secure revenge, or even to find a family. Throughout this experience, their outlook on war is desensitized and propagandized. The Hour’s interview with Ishmael Beah describes the experience of a former child soldier from Sierra Leone who was rescued and brought to America. His novel describes the terrors of violence and its effect of millions of ignorant children. As organizations work to remove children from war …show more content…

Adolescents committing offenses must take criminal responsibility for their actions. To illustrate, “Child Soldiers Should be Prosecuted”, an article published on Debatewise reveals, “In Sierra Leone, child soldiers committed acts of rape, mutilation and mass killings of civilians...There should be no exception simply because the crimes occur during wartime” (debatewise.org). Clearly, many of these felonies are off the battlefield and are committed solely by choice of the child soldier. Sexual assault, destruction, and murder must be addressed seriously in court regardless of age or situation in which the acts were performed. War serves in no way as a bypass to these ramifications. Additionally, these convicts do not deserve to live alongside their former adversary. Specifically, the article, “Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators?” declares, “It would be unjust and unright to allow the perpetrators-the child soldiers- to be allowed to walk free and stand side-by-side with their victims.” (“Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators?” ). Victims, who have sacrificed their lives, would not only feel terrorized by these soldiers but also disregarded by their country, for the culprit was not punished. Civilians would not feel comfortable living with a former mass murderer who is capable of shooting an AK-47. These children should be in jail serving the time they are sentenced. The battlefield, unlike The Purge, has punishments that must be served. Thus, child soldiers must face the consequences of a child criminal to bring justice to the

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“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.

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Often referred to as “child soldiers,” these boys and girls suffer extensive forms of exploitation and abuse that are not fully captured by that term”

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Dismissal of a Childhood More than 250,000 children have been captured and forced into a cruel war. (“Child Soldiers”). Unfortunately, the ban on child soldiers has not yet reached worldwide. There are more than multiple reasons why children should not be linked to war. The thoughts, actions, and ideas that are implanted into child soldiers' brains can be more than harmful to them for the rest of their lives.

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On Saturday, March 23 the Sierra Leone army came under attack from rebel forces from within the country called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a ruthless group of soldiers led by a former army Sierra Leone corporal, Foday Sankoh. They would do anything to gain control of the country including the enlistment of child soldiers, and they had the upper hand until the army followed their strategy and drafted children themselves (Fyfe and Davidson). Many of the child soldiers suffered a lot of physical and psychological trauma from the war including a young boy named Ishmael Beah. In A Long Way Gone, Beah’s recounting of his experiences in the war, portrays the loss of innocence and hope in child soldiers due to the effects of war.

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In the end, when the conflict has cooled, the question rises, who was to blame for all the death? Most obviously were the leaders of each army and/or the source of the disturbance of peace, but can you blame an ex-child-soldier for their atrocities? People can’t simply accuse a former child soldier for crimes that they suffered a “childhood” where there was no other choice. There are probably many variables that went into making a child into a killer as proven in the article, a former child soldier will stand trial in The Hague for war crimes, “Clearly, the traumatized psychology of the child soldier will be part of Ongwen's defense when his trial begins at the ICC” (3), as this quote demonstrates how very little children probably ever joined the army willfully without trauma or fear for one’s self or someone close to them. The only time that a child soldier can be justifiably accused of war crimes is if they killed without trauma or fear and/or a continuous record of violence even after the

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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.

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“Tens of thousands of children are estimated to be recruited and used by armed groups. In 2019 alone, more than 7,740 children, some as young as six, were recruited and used as soldiers around the world, according to the United Nations. Most are recruited by non-state groups.” (Wuilbercq). There are more than seven thousand forty children that were child soldiers in twenty nineteen alone.

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There are thousands of child soldiers in the world today. These children are stripped from their homes and sent to fight with people twice their age. Many haven’t even had their 11th birthday yet. Although some people say that child soldiers should not be granted amnesty, evidence shows that these children do deserve amnesty, except in cases when the former soldiers show violent behavior after war because children are forced to commit acts of violence and are force addicted to illegal substances so they won’t want to leave.

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1603 Words | 7 Pages

When you picture war, what do you see? Is it people with tanks and Ak-47s fighting each other? Maybe adults in camo fighting in the desert? Or perhaps even an image from your Call of Duty video game pops into your head. But what most people don’t imagine is children, ages 9-15, fighting each other and dying at the hands of guns and other weapons.

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In the article Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes it says,“if a child is under the age of 15 is considered too young to fight then he or she must be considered too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations.” This explains how that they are easily manipulated and targeted because they aren't legally responsible to take responsibility for their actions. Each child were held in hostilities and couldn't have to opportunity to not fight. Also in Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes a report within the article it says, “ The report says child soldiers should not be prosecuted simply for the association with an armed group of having participation in hostilities.” Children are targeted to be recruited to war because nobody can take responsibility for the

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1646 Words | 7 Pages

When these children use their weapons, others are killed, and these children can get prosecuted. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are not fully responsible for their actions, they join without fully knowing what they are doing and for reasons other than wanting to fight, and they should be rehabilitated instead of being prosecuted. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are not fully responsible for their actions. Often, child soldiers are doing what they do because of drugs or because they are being forced to. Most times child soldiers are not doing what they want.

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1821 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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1422 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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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.)

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