Argumentative Essay On Child Soldiers

After reading the memoir A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, I now have a much deeper understanding of the atrocities of war and the effect it has upon young people. As an ordinary young boy in Sierra Leone in the 1990’s, Beah grew up with a love for soccer and rap music. In early 1991 the Sierra Leonean civil war began and Ishmael’s life would never be the same again. The rebels, or RUF (Revolutionary United Front), would raid villages and kill civilians, rob homes and set them on fire. In an attack on his village, Ishmael lost his entire family. Beah, a terrified twelve year old boy, was now forced to fight for himself. While running away from the rebel’s massacres, he was recruited by the government militia as a child soldier. The government forced these innocent child soldiers to fight against the rebels. In order to take their minds off of the killing, the soldiers were

On March 23rd, 1991, a civil war started between the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). This war had an enormous impact on everyone in and around the country, especially young civilian boys who were taken from their families and homes to become child soldiers. One of these former government soldiers is Ishmael Beah, who was brought into this battle between powers at only 13 years old. Throughout his lifetime, he has had to confront many challenges and conflicts, most of which can be found in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” After reading his memoir, I have gained much knowledge on the topic of both the Sierra Leone Civil War and the issue of children becoming soldiers. The themes of this

Sierra Leone once had a time where child soldiers were forced to fight in a civil war. Children were taken from their peaceful life’s to fight in the civil war. When the war broke out in 1991 Ishmael, a child in Sierra Leone was separated from his family and later brother Junior. After being left alone Ishmael, with friends, was taken to be a child soldier. This started Ishmael’s journey as a child soldier.

The change in Sierra Leone culture is one of the first consequences of war seen in the story. Throughout the civil war the rebels (RUF) recruited or forced many children to become soldiers. In order to get these children they would raid villages and then draft the strongest ones. They would then tell the children that they would not need their families

Abu, a former child soldier adds onto how this brainwashing technique impacted him. “Abu is not sure exactly how old he was the first time he killed. He thinks he was 13, but was high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol at the time and -- like many Sierra Leoneans -- does not know his exact date of birth.” This examines the effects of drugs & alcohol abuse. How it allowed child soldiers to perform their duties and not question their actions. This use as it became more repetitive acted like an eraser that just erased all the grief and questioning that children had about the war, their families, & what they were

This led to “occasional dangerous physical assaults on one another or even staff at the school” (United States, National). When reintegrated into normal society without treatment, the child soldiers reverted back to their only way of living, which was in the brain-washed state of constant warfare. Even when medically checked over, the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital wrote them off as “possessed demons”, failing to recognize the implications of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Outdated and ineffective programs brush aside the traumas of war and write them off as mentally deranged, which would further isolate the once child soldiers from society and cause them to deal with the repercussions of PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. alone. This is why the United States should set up rehabilitation centers, allowing the large percentage of child soldiers to find solace and return to normalcy, preventing from slipping back into the travesties of war and to not pose a threat to society.

As with any victims of trauma, child soldiers experience post traumatic stress disorders, but they may also experience withdrawal if drugs were used to keep the child soldiers in line. In A Long Way Gone, Beah describes his experience with withdrawal: “My hands had begun to shake uncontrollably and my migraines had returned with a vengeance… No one paid any attention, as everyone was busy going through our own withdrawal stages in different ways” (140) and post traumatic stress disorder: “Whenever I turned on the tap water, all I could see was blood gushing out… Other times, the younger boys sat by rocks weeping and telling us that the rocks were their dead families” (145). The wounds these children gain might be physical as well, as children were often used to clear minefields or as cannon fodder (Child Soldiers

No one wants their childhood to be utterly destroyed or have their family taken away from them in the blink of an eye, without the chance to even say one last goodbye. The odd chance of that happening to us, here in America, is slim to none. In Sierra Leone on the other hand, along with many other parts of Africa, child soldiers are being put to use in armies. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the recruitment of child soldiers, African living situations, and the psychological trauma endured by the children deals with the issue of child soldiers.

Imagine having to fight in a war you don’t want to fight in, seeing friends and family die all around you, but no matter how far you run you can never escape. Child soldiers in Sierra Leone do not have to imagine this - for them, it is reality. Ishmael Beah, who became a soldier at just age 12, as well as researchers such as Christophe Bayer, Fionna Klasen, Hubertus Adam know too well that the events in the war can never be forgotten. The story Beah told in his memoir A Long Way Gone captures the inhumane events that take place in Sierra Leone and tells of a story that many children have to endure. Sources like Harvard claim “among the 87 war-torn countries...300,000 - 500,000 children are involved with fighting forces as child soldiers.” Many of those children are being forced into the war without any choice at all and having to kill others as well. With this information we’re forced to ask the question: how are these children being affected by the war?

Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, stated in a conference, “I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and two brothers. I know too well the emotional, psychological and physical burden that comes with being exposed to violence as a child or at any age for that matter,” (Brainy Quotes). He grew up during the civil war in 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.) attempted to overthrow the government. The R.U.F. took control of eastern and southern Sierra Leone territories that were rich in diamonds. In order to purchase weapons and ammunitions, the R.U.F. would enslave villages and use the citizens

On average half of the children who are fighting on rebel armies in africa were kidnapped and forced to take drugs, most of these kids are not even 15 years old but they have to fight or they will be killed by the rebel commanders. If any of these children escape the war they may have many years to a life time of PTSD and become scarred for life. From this I believe that child soldiers are victims and should not be punished by what rebels force them to do.

Since they are forced to leave their homes, kids miss out on getting an education, spending time with family, making friends, and enjoying peaceful, carefree lives. Being recruited into war changes their childhood forever. They live in fear of getting killed or harmed, and have to murder other people themselves. If they don’t, they risk getting shot or abused by commanders. An article on hrw.org (2004) states that many children are “victims of killings, rape and sexual assault, abduction, torture, forced labor and displacement at the hands of the warring factions.” This reveals that when children are forced into war, they no longer get to enjoy the fun and simple childhood everyone deserves. Rather, they must live up to adult responsibilities and perform abhorrent crimes. In addition, these children are often given many drugs to make them more inclined to kill. An article on vision.org (2008) talks about a child soldier rehabilitation camp director that has reported that kids “would do just about anything that was ordered” while on drugs. The use of drugs in young people dangerously affects their overall health and alters their minds substantially. Also, Child Soldiers International notes that child soldiers “run a high risk of being killed or maimed.” This clearly describes the health and future of these children as they are forced into war. As can be seen, recruiting kids into war negatively affects their physical state and their

Once they are recruited they are filled with drugs that alter their brains into making them believe that what they are doing is the right thing to do. The author of Child Soldiers, Prosecution indicates that the commanders of child soldiers drug the children to brainwash them. “The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and enable them to commit acts they would not ordinarily commit. ”(10) In a later paragraph of Child Soldiers, Prosecution the author writes “Once children are recruited into the military it is also difficult for them to leave because they become dependent

Children recruited into the armed forces in these countries are forced by their commanders to commit atrocities against other soldiers and villagers. They may also suffer through punishments themselves. Commanders have been known to force their child recruits to witness and/or commit abuses against their own families or captured prisoners (“Coercion and Intimidation of Child Soldiers to Participate in Violence” 1). For instance, child soldiers recruited into Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army have been forced to tie their parents to trees and club them to death or be killed themselves (Taylor 1). Physical

In a report published by UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) it states that there are around 300,000 child soldiers, participating in over 30 different conflicts worldwide. Of these 300,000, 120,000 are serving in different countries in Africa. One of the countries where this issue has been extremely prevalent is Sierra Leone, where child soldiers made up a significant part of the armed forces during its 11-year civil war, with 10,000 out of about 50,000 soldiers being children. Accounts of child soldiers in Sierra Leone have been made, with both the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the movie Ezra telling the story of a Sierra Leonean child soldier. Even though both the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael