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The Pros And Cons Of Child Soldiers

501 Words3 Pages

Imagine all of a sudden, you are ripped from your town, everything you know and everyone you love. In the blink of an eye, you’re being trained to be a killing machine, at an age as young as 8. Forced to kill other children, mutilate other humans, and rape women. What would go through your head? Now this may sound like a horror movie, but this happened to more than 300,000 children. All forced to be slaves for a cause they don’t believe in, to kill or be killed. Children are forced by organizations such as the RUF (Revolutionary United Front, the group that led the rebellion in Sierra Leone) to become child soldiers incredibly young, in places everywhere, such as Sierra Leone.The psychological ramifications of being a child soldier are huge, and stick for years. To start off, these kids are forced to do things that no …show more content…

There is another example of this in an interview that Normal Okello gave to The Telegraph, a news site that’s been around since 1901. “When you kill for the first time, automatically, you change,” Norman says, “Out of being innocent, you’ve now become guilty. You feel like you’re becoming part of them, part of the rebels.” The psychological damage was severe.” It later says. “Many (child soldiers) – like Norman – took years to recover sufficiently well that they could lead a normal life. His experience, although appalling, is relatively ordinary.”. This is clear evidence that the effects of being forced to kill are huge, and stay with the person for years. I took a survey of 21 people and asked the various questions about their takes on issues concerning child soldiers. The survey found that 89% of participants said that they wouldn’t be able to lead a normal life after being a child

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