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Essay on psycological consequences of a child soldier
Recruitment of child soldiers
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on psycological consequences of a child soldier
Recruitment of child soldiers
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“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.
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.
Today there are thousands of child soldiers around the world. In these conflicts they are not only as a soldier but they are also used as suicide bombers for religion causes, spies, lookout and many more tasks where children are
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
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
Thesis: We Were Soldiers Once… and Young is the story of the 7th Calvary under the command of Col. Moore struggle for their survival against thousands of NVA troops, while never giving up composure in the face of certain defeat. Positive or Negative Leadership example (briefly describe and give relevant page numbers): On page 80 Col. Moore and his troops are on the breaking point after being dropped off by the Hueys and being attacked by the NVA. However unwilling to become the next George Custer he takes charge and calls in Fire Support. But he was unable to identify the enemy positions so by walking back each artillery strike he was able to hit the enemy and save his own men lives.
Children of younger ages don’t really have the power to fight back adults and with undeveloped minds, they can be easily made to do something that they don’t really want to do. Ishmael Beah a former child soldier was on The Hour and recounted what happened to him during his time in the army. “They forcefully trained me, learned how to use the Ak-47s [sic]. Perfection came by actually being in war… You do what commanders want you to do if not they will kill you and then you’re fed drugs and then…
The first argument we are able to present is how child soldiers are being used to fight wars for rebel groups or the government of third world countries. The first example of this being shown in the text is when the article called “Armed & Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman we can see this example when he tells us “According to human-rights groups and the United Nations, the Somali government is using hundreds of children, some as young as 9, on the front lines.” This piece of evidence is able to tell us how the Somali government is using children as soldiers on the front lines. Also the article states as young as 9 to fight in wars for them against rebel groups. In fact, we can clearly see how kids are being used as child soldiers as we can clearly tell, but it does show us the age group the kids are being picked up from but also what the government uses these kids to fight wars.
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.
Casualties of War is based on Daniel Lang’s news report on the Incident on Hill 192 in 1966 during the Vietnam War. In the movie, a five-man squad led by Sergeant Meserve kidnaps and rapes a Vietnamese girl named Than, regardless of the protagonist, Eriksson’s objection. Eriksson tries to rescue the girl, but the squad eventually kills her. Going through various obstacles, Eriksson manages to send the four men into court-martial, where they are sentenced to jail. The movie ends with Eriksson’s chance encounter with a Vietnamese-American girl who resembles Than, suggesting that he still cannot forget the wartime experience.
We don 't typically stop to think about our freedom, it is something most of us are guilty of taking for granted. Even when our freedom is brought to our attention, it is only a brief thought quickly pushed to the back of our minds. Most of us are too focused on our own hardships and shortcomings. However, there are a select few who have come to the realization that this freedom is a highly valued prize. These are the people that fight our battles for us because they value the safe haven that our country is.
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.
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.
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