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Child Soldiers In Beah's Long Way Gone

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A child, not any older than 13, walks through the remains of a city. With an AK-47 in his hands and cocaine in his system, he is alert and ready to do what he has to in order to survive. As he walks through the gravel and sees civilians crying on the ground, he remembers his family, his friends, and his other lost loved ones. This child grows sad yet angry at the same time--he wants vengeance. The next thing he knows his commander is standing at his side giving him one simple order: kill. You are surely aware that child soldiers have been used for centuries. Today, they fight mainly throughout Africa, South America, and the Middle East in countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Columbia, Syria, Libya, and more. Experts believe thousands …show more content…

On DebateWise.org it is stated that some kids join because they live in poverty and will otherwise starve to death. They feel like they don’t have any choice but to join. Other times they are convinced being a soldier will be safer for them, that they will be safer when they’re the ones behind the gun, not in front of it. In Ishmael Beah’s “Long Way Gone” he describes how during the civil war in Sierra Leone, rebels would march into cities and chose the children who seemed the strongest. Many times the rebels would then force their newly recruited members to kill weaker civilians in the city. Any child would be terrified in this scenario, which is why they follow their orders. Even though not all children are forced into fighting, they are still too young to fully understand the life-changing decision they have made. Some children enlist because they seek revenge. In Ishmael Beah’s novel he states, “I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I 've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end...” Children who decided to fight for revenge are not in a stable situation after they are angry and heartbroken. This quote proves that surviving is the main priority to child soldiers, so they do things without processing the

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In the “Children on the battlefield” article written by Marcie Schwartz explains that boys under 18 have served in many wars including the Civil War. They would join by lying about there age, having their parents sign them up, or there teachers would influence the recruiting officer to let them join. Some recruiting officers would look the other way so that they could met their quota. When they were enlisted they had many hard and dangerous jobs to do and also also served on military ships. The boys often were home sick and did not know what they wanted to do with there life.

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Killing is an action that can never be undone. In the novel War Brothers, Sharon E. Mckay examines the impact of this action. War Brothers is a story about four children fighting for survival after their capture by the LRA. During their time in the LRA, they all learn what the true meaning of family is and how you have to look out for not only yourself but others too. There are three characters in the novel that are impacted in different ways by the choice to kill.

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Jessica Garcia-Alvarez Professor Fred Hess English 101 Section 23 Essay 2 First Draft 25 October 2015 Fast Foods Obesity is an increasing national crisis. The main cause is hiding in between the wrappers of those yummy and tasteful fast food meals that we cannot simply resist. Some corporations blame it on the one who is consuming the product and some try to make better choices to change them. However, others are ignoring the claims that the fast foods are unhealthy and refuse to change it to a healthier food product.

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How would you feel if you were recruited as a soldier during war? Since 2001, the participation of child soldiers has been reported in 21 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world. The importance of this is portrayed in Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone. The author believes that innocent kids should not be selected to fight as soldiers, lose their innocence killing people, witnessing violent scenes and suffer because of war.

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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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This quote shows that many of them don’t have any interest in being soldiers, so they don’t want to be violent. “They are easily manipulated.” (Gettleman) Since they are only kids, we shouldn’t expect them to be mature enough to think about what they are doing as soldiers. Besides, most child soldiers don’t

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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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What do thousands of kids do when they are scared that they will be charged with war crimes if they escape from there battle? That is what child soldiers across the world, ask themselves every day. Because they do not know if they should risk their lives to get amnesty that is promised to them, just to be thrown in jail. Because there are rules that the child soldiers don't even know, so it is a gamble they have to bid their lives on.. Child soldiers deserve amnesty because they are drugged and brainwashed, they are kidnaped or forced to join, also they are killed and abused for little to no reason.

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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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“ Many children volunteer to become soldiers in wartime out of patriotism or a desire to avenge the death of their families.” This tells me that they do it for protection or like payback for what they had done before to everyone. “ At the time they might believe that recruiting would lead to a safer life as necessities as food, water and shelter would be available.” This tells me that some child soldiers join and everything because they need food and somewhere to live because they don't have it and they need it. This is another reason why I think child soldiers should be

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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.

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History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned

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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.

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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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857 Words | 4 Pages

They also do not have to live with the fear every day, wondering whether they will be killed or not. While reading an article from the New York Times, it has mentioned that rebels would just rip children from soccer fields to fight. They are considered the perfect weapon being easily manipulated and are considered fearless and loyal, unlike adult soldiers. (page

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