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Should Child Soldiers Have To Be Right Essay

450 Words2 Pages

All around the world, children are being forced out of their homes and onto battlefields to fight for what they are led to believe is the right thing. Military commanders who are short on troops take over villages and force the children to fight for the government. Though some of them have committed unspeakable acts, many people believe that these children deserve amnesty, as they were forced into their positions. Also, they can’t refuse the government for threat of death. Because of this and more, child soldiers should clearly be granted amnesty. One of many reasons that child soldiers do not deserve punishment for their crimes is the fact that none of these people were bad to begin with. They were forced to watch their families die right in front of them. Also, most of these children feel terrible about the crimes they’ve committed unless brainwashed to feel otherwise. There are exceptions, but the majority would have never committed a crime if they hadn’t been recruited. Although some claims may lead to the opposite, most child soldiers are not completely evil and won’t kill on sight. Some people will attempt to lead others to believe that these innocent children deserve to spend the …show more content…

These people often claim that they could have been heroic and died rather than kill on the battlefield, but they physically can’t. As stated in a branch of the web article “Who Runs Your Life?”, there is actually a human instinct that comes with the portion of the “Fight or Flight” response that shuts down the frontal lobe, making people physically incapable of making a decision that would take their own life (Schwartz). This instinct is only active around the ages of 5-15, and just doesn’t work around 2% of the time. Uncoincidentally, about 1.5% of potential child soldiers refuse to join and are

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