Snatched from their families, with guns pointed at their heads, they are forced to kill. Beaten and drugged, they lose all moral values. They are brainwashed into believing that killing is required to survive. These people are children, innocent victims, who need rescue.
First of all, child soldiers are treated very poorly - like machines - to perform one task: kill. So, the captors do whatever they can to train the children to kill. Ishmael Beah, once a child soldier, was rescued by the UNICEF after being a child soldier for 2 years. As a child soldier, he saw crying children shot before his eyes, and he was brainwashed and drugged into oblivion. His captors desensitized him so much that he said, “Shooting became just like a drinking a glass of water.” So, when a child like Ishmael, who was
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They are forced to kill their best friends to prove they are loyal, if they don’t, they are killed. It comes to the point were shooting is “just like drinking a glass of water.” It is often argued that the children choose to stay and kill. Many ask, why didn’t they just desert? Why not shoot the commanders? Because they are afraid of what will happen if they do. Remember Sai Seng, beaten to death because he deserted? For child soldiers, disobedience is unacceptable. They don’t even think of disobedience because they see what happens to those who do disobey. They are told that spirits protect the commanders and they are brainwashed to just shoot at the enemy. A child soldiers life is full of threats. If you argued with the commander, you were threatened with death. If you refused to participate in executions and beatings, you were threatened with death. If you didn’t run straight into gunfire, you were beaten. They even tell them that spirits will kill them if they don’t stand tall in the path of gunfire. Charles, a 15 year old child soldier