ipl-logo

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

Show More
Related
405 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
866 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1812 Words | 8 Pages

To begin, some will say that child soldiers should be prosecuted because they have caused harm to others, but rehabilitation should be the aim because of the horrors they have seen. Children have seen blood, bruises, bones, and dead bodies, haphazardly strewn freely among the battlefield--dead. They have seen men trying to murder each other right before their very eyes, and are aghast after what they have seen. What does this do to the minds of these innocent children who haven’t yet learned to be civil? The children are now scarred, and need to learn to cope with the violence they have been influenced by.

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

On the other hand, ProQuest informs us that child soldiers are often forced ahead of older troops, and are used as shields, and to find landmines. They are used as spies, messengers, guards, porters, cooks, and domestic servants. Many child soldiers are girls, who are expected to fight and are often subjected to rape or sexual exploitation” Do you think these mistakes being made are truly their fault? These children are forced into this. They are drugged, kidnapped, and threatened to

Read More
1802 Words | 8 Pages

First, Child Soldiers don’t know what is going on and grow up with everything loss because of the manipulation leaders have given. The author stated, "Wessells, who works half-time with the Christian Children's Fund, explains that in many refugee camps, children grow up feeling as if they've lost everything and can't do anything to make things better for themselves" (Smith). This shows that Child Soldiers had no idea what was happening because they did not have the background of their lives before fighting. Children didn’t know what was going on because they were brainwashed and manipulated by leaders and others who trained them to fight hard. Also, when Child Soldiers are drugged and don’t know what is going on, they often change their behavior.

Read More
749 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

Many children are lured with benefits or forced into joining the military forces, and then coerced to stay there through brainwashing. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, like virtually all other child soldiers was put through desensitization camps, where they watched violent films and were drugged with things like brown brown (cocaine mixed with smokeless gunpowder), in order to make them easier to control. It was not until later when Ishmael was rescued and healthy did he even

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

Child soldiers are kids who are the between the age 7 and 18 sometimes they are younger either 5 or 6.One reason is they are forced into being a child soldier and to go and fight here are child soldiers in Uganda,Liberia and other places. They are recruited by state or not state group and used as fighters,cooks,,suicide bombers,human shields,messengers or spies and sexual purposes. A second reason is they had no choice to be given the drugs. Also they are forced to kill people because or the drugs that is given to them. They either got kidnapped on their way home from school or in there sleep.

Read More
1213 Words | 5 Pages

Have you ever seen a movie or documentary about children as young as five in places like Somalia, Chad, or Myanmar, killing innocent people, terrorizing, or even raping young girls? This issue may have blown past your head seeing it before or even hearing it for the first time right now. You may not believe this could actually be true. But you need to understand how very controversial this issue can be. After reading this paper, you will realize how child soldiers are perpetrators and shouldn’t be given amnesty for simply the reasons of, these kids have ruined lives, killed, raped innocent people who have done nothing wrong.

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

“Most children are forcibly recruited and even when they enlist they may not have thought carefully about their decision or made an informed choice.” (Child Soldiers, Prosecution, 10). In some cases, the children are not responsible for their actions because they are forced to perform them. In this situation the responsibility would fall on their commanders, but not all circumstances are the same. “Many children volunteer

Read More
1654 Words | 7 Pages

In the past ten years, the use of child soldiers has provoked over two million deaths, one million orphans, six million injured or permanently disabled, and ten million children diagnosed with psychological trauma (“Child Soldiers—Victims or Perpetrators?”). Children in the military fight for various reasons: to sacrifice themselves, secure revenge, or even to find a family. Throughout this experience, their outlook on war is desensitized and propagandized. The Hour’s interview with Ishmael Beah describes the experience of a former child soldier from Sierra Leone who was rescued and brought to America. His novel describes the terrors of violence and its effect of millions of ignorant children.

Read More
1438 Words | 6 Pages

This is true because a lot of times young children have no families, no schooling, no money, and therefore no shelter, food, or water etc. Since kids need all of these things to survive they look to war as a better option because it is the only place that provides these necessities for free. In “Child Soldiers: Victims or Perpetrators” it says “At the time they might believe that recruiting would lead to a safer life as necessities such as food, water and shelter would be available; actually fighting in war would not cross their mind. However, once they are recruited the children become over reliant on their commanders for shelter, money, water, drugs and alcohol that they find an extreme difficulty to leave” (Invisible Children). In order for the children to survive they need these necessities and the only way their commanders give it to them is if the children oblige and follow the rules which sometimes means to follow through with crimes.

Read More
1470 Words | 6 Pages

The reason behind this is that most of these children who are poor, and are away from their families have limited or almost no access to education. Children join armed forces or groups for many reasons. Children are often used because they are easier to brainwash, deal with, and because they don’t need much food, and money. In some situations, children are being threatened and forced to join. However, many children volunteer as a result of economic or social pressures, or because they believe the group will offer an income, food or security.

Read More
1422 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

Child soldiers are children who are below the age of eighteen. Most of them are being dragged into the army by some people killing their families to get revenge. Some of them don't have any food or water so they join the army to get all of that. A lot of children join the army even though that's illegal to do generals still allow children to join the army.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Child Soldiers

Related Topics

Open Document