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Research Paper On A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

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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. Such as drugs, mental problems, abuse, and so much more. Providing information about such a delicate topic could bring awareness to world problems, such as child soldiers. History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned internationally because child soldiers suffer from mental illnesses, drug abuse and are exposed to …show more content…

In the book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, Beah is captured and forced into being a child soldier. They not only forced him into violence, but a significant amount of harmful drugs were introduced to him, to the point where it is the only thing he could truly concentrate on. This left Ishmael feeling empty and restless. “But after several doses of these drugs, all I felt was numbness to everything and so much energy that I couldn't sleep for weeks” (Beah 121). On average, most children forced into war are, at some point in time, introduced to drugs. These drugs give said character an unhealthy way of life, like low signs of emotion, which is very bad for him. The misuse of drugs, as shown in the evidence, can cause insomnia, which is unhealthy in plenty of different ways and something no child should ever have to experience. Such as lack of sleep, concentration, memory loss, and many more side effects that can negatively affect a child's brain progression process, causing disruption to their way of life. Because of the drug exposure child soldiers go through, it is a highly opinionated topic to ban the participation of children in

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Also, according to the Invisible Children Association, “...child soldiers are often forced into fighting through false promises. They are also forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol.” This shows how they are forced and they think what they are doing is okay because they are brainwashed. These children are being misled and sometimes threatened to commit horrible acts, that they wouldn’t do if they knew what was happening. But these children were never taught what is right and wrong.

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More than 200,000 children are soldiers (Gettleman, 2010, 1). The issue of child soldiers came to worldwide attention when Ishmael Beah wrote his book A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Child Soldier. Ever since then it has been continually debated, and researched. Rebel groups like the LRA and also some government troops abduct children from their homes. These children are forced into war before they’ve lost all their baby teeth, or had their first crush.

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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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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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Many of the child soldiers who were able to leave the war had a tremendous amount of problems. “But at night some of us would wake up from nightmares, sweating, screaming, and punching our own heads to drive out the images that continued to torment us even when we were no longer asleep.” (148) The child soldiers who were rescued and sent to one of the rehabilitation centers still had the same mentality. They were still addicted to drugs, and to killing.

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In the article, “CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE GLOBAL AGENDA” it says, “Children need be the victims of war only if there is no will to prevent it.” This helps show how children should not be involved in war in the first place. They aren’t the ones who have started the war. It isn’t their fault in the first place so why are people punishing the children for their involvement when it wasn’t their fault. They expect the kids to serve time or to get a death sentence when it was adults like them who brought them into this mess.

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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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According to the Summative Essay Child Soldiers, children are given drugs, alcohol to get brainwashed into thinking what they are forced to do is an okay normal thing. “They were forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol. The drugs, often cocaine mixed with gunpowder, brainwashed the children to the point where they would rather not escape from the horror unraveling around them. I personally believe anyone who has to succumb to such horror and atrocities should not be prosecuted for the crimes they committed.” (Summative Essay Child Soldiers)

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The Problem of Child Soldiers “Since 2010, there’s been a 34% rise in the number of children living in conflict-affected areas, plus a staggering 170% rise in the number of reported grave violations committed against children in conflict.”(“Child Soldiers: Childhood's End”). This quote relates to my thesis statement because it shows the percentage of child soldiers that are in danger at a very young age and the rate of children in danger is still on the rise. Child Soldiers are young children that are put into war zones and danger zones at a very young age and have no control over what is going on. In A Long Way Gone the children got brained wash but doing drugs and not knowing they were, and being killed at too young of age by also being introduced to violence at too young of an age.

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These situations are turning young and innocent children into bloody soldiers. These children are forced to face violence, and should not be punished for putting into action the violence they have seen around them in war. Another reason I believe that child soldiers should not be punished for their war crimes is because the human brain is not fully developed at their age. This makes these situations much more detrimental to children. In the article The Teen Brain: 7 Things to Know, NIMH says that the human brain is fully developed at the age of 25, and the last part of the human brain to fully mature is the prefrontal cortex.

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Numerous child soldiers have said to be forced into the atrocities they do. Some are kidnapped from homes, and some are obliged for surviving. A Former child soldier, Ishmael Beah, has said, “they had pressed me to the war and had forcefully trained me” …“You do what the commanders tell you to do, if not, they will kill you.” Therefore, the child soldiers had no other option.

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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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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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