Child Soldiers Essay

Clara Napolitano 805                                                                                      Child Soldiers Essay

In the U.S. the use of child soldiers isn’t common. Unfortunately, that is not the case in other parts of the world. For example, human rights experts have estimated that more than 300,000 child soldiers are being used. This is despite the fact that since 2004 the number of conflicts using child soldiers has dropped from 24 to 17. Organizations like the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers are trying to stop child soldiers from fighting but there is still a lot of work to do. Based on the information from the articles “Armed and Underage”, “Children at War”, and the video “Ishmael Beah, Child Soldier (CBS News with Katie Couric) I think that child soldiers are victims for many reasons.

“It is less an army than a drugged-out street gang with military-grade weapons and 13-year-old brides. Its ranks are filled with boys brainwashed to burn down huts and pound newborn babies to death.” This quote from the Armed and Underage article helped me come to my thesis that child soldiers are victims. This quote describes how terrible the experience is for child soldiers. When it says that the boys were “brainwashed” and that they are “drugged-out” it really shows that the child soldiers did not have much of a choice as to what they are doing. This is one of the reasons that I think child soldiers are victims- they are children, they don’t have much control over what they are doing considering that they are on drugs. In the CBS video about Ishmael Beah, he says that he and the other soldiers were on a mixture of cocaine and gun powder called “brown-brown” and that the commanders gave them the drugs before they had to start finding the drugs themselves. This also shows the first reason why I think child soldiers victims- because they do not have control or any choice in what they do.

Also in the video about Ishmael Beah, he says that he and his comrades thought that the commanders had a “ju-ju” or magic power that kept them safe. Beah also says that all of the soldiers became close, like brothers. This quote to me shows that these soldiers are children. Children are supposed to be scared of things like fighting in wars at their age, and didn’t want to leave for this feeling of closeness. Most of the boys joined the army because their family was dead or in poverty so this feeling of family was probably welcome, no matter what the consequences. This might make people who think that child soldiers are perpetrators because it was a welcome feeling- but not to all and there is no real way of knowing how each individual boy felt. This shows my second reason for believing that child soldiers are victims- that the child soldiers did not have any other option, they did not have anywhere to go and many didn’t want to leave because they felt safe.

My last reason for thinking that child soldiers are victims is shown in this quote by Ishmael Beah from the article Armed and Underage: “And then it just becomes a bloodbath, a way for the commanders to plunder, a war of madness.” This quote is about how the commanders take advantage of the use of child soldiers for money. This is supports my final reason as to why child soldiers are victims- because they are being taken advantage of. “So did Iran in the 1980s when it gave 12-to-16-year-old boys plastic ‘keys to heaven’ to hang around their necks as they cleared minefields during the Iran-Iraq war.” This last quote from the article really horrifies me because the commanders will go so far to get what they want and if that includes putting children into combat then they will do it, which is really sad to me because these kids are supposed to be able to trust adults but then they can’t because they were taken advantage of at such a young age.

Based on all the quotes and all the articles we read, and the video we watched I think that child soldiers are victims. I think this because they are taken advantage of, because they do not have another option, and because they are just children and do not have a choice or any control over what they are doing. Now, organizations are trying to stop the warlords in charge of child soldiers but there seems as though there will always be work to be done towards the problem. Now that I know more about child soldiers I find it horrifying that this kind of violence happens, but I am hopeful that there are people trying to stop it. After all, one quote from Armed and Underage said- “The gun does not know who is young or old.”