Argumentative Essay: The Use Of Child Soldiers

Child soldiers are victims to an unfortunate outcome when viciously stolen from reality and their childhoods. Drugged, brainwashed,and armed these kids are taught at an impressionable age that in war it's kill or be killed. They are given no other option than to participate in this war, so child soldiers should be granted amnesty.

The use of child soldiers have become a normal contribution to armies, especially in countries such as Africa. Although, countries such as Afghanistan, India, and Libya have been using child soldiers since 2011. According to “Children in Conflict: Child Soldiers,” there has been 36 countries involved since 1998. Something needs to be done about this issue due to the fact that thousands of

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

What are child soldiers? Child soldiers are people under eighteen who partake in either a regular or irregular armed group in any way. According to Warchild there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world and often as a part of their recruitment they are forced to either kill or maim a loved one so that they cannot go back home. In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) the author recounts his life as a child soldier fighting on the government side in Sierra Leone from age thirteen to sixteen. This paper will be attempting to answer the questions of why certain armed groups use children, why it is wrong to do so, and how people are taking a stand to stop it.

First off, child soldiers are held against their will to do dangerous tasks that they have no say in. In an article interviewing Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier, he states, "Somebody being shot in front of you, or you yourself shooting somebody became just like drinking a glass of water. Children who refused to fight, kill or showed any weakness were ruthlessly dealt with.”

These Children are being exploited from their families and then taking into custody. Human service reports that children are being brutally recruitment, by being taken away and often being harassed by older people. This is a society impact, this is a big problem, for the global impact, which can work together to reintegrate, child soldiers back to society to make them, a productive individuals. All around the world every child has dream of going to school and learning about everything, but in some states that's not the case they are compelled to become instruments of war kill, and to be killed. Child soldiers are being forced to give violent expression towards adults, they are often thought that adults are the main enemy and they are always thought that they are alone in this

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

Children in US are perceived as the next generation, the future per say. We have multiple laws across the country to punish many ways of what we call is child abuse. While some may argue more could be done, I feel the intention to protect the children in this country is not questionable for most people. While reading these articles about children soldiers, one thing is clear: poverty and education seems to be the common ground why children are either forced, or willingly join an army.

Greater attention and action against the worldwide use of child soldiers need to be addressed by the world community because children are being forced out of their homes, traumatized by all of the killings and dying surrounding them and they are being starved and beaten. Today, there are thousands of children involved in these armed jobs all around the world. There is an estimated 3,000 children, many under 16, including 500 girls in the army. (“Child Soldiers”)

In conclusion, I think that child soldiering has negative effects on a child's development and emotional/mental wellbeing. Whether the child was forced to join or volunteered, they are still a victim. Even if they volunteered the circumstances that they faced forced them to join to try to make their lives better. Their roles, whether combat or noncombat, are harmful because the child witnesses and experiences things that no child should experience. From carrying injured soldiers and weapons, to being used as cannon fodder, to being sexually violated on a regular basis, all of these things lower the quality of well being of a child and turns them into insensitive robots with no compassion for other human beings. The terrible things that child soldiers are forced to witness and do are

Kassie Cordier Child Soldiers In discussions of child soldiers, one controversial issue has been if they should be granted amnesty for killing people. On the one hand, people who believe child soldiers are harmful argue that they should be prosecuted. On the other hand, people who think they were forced into fighting contend that they shouldn’t be prosecuted. The fact that they killed people, might kill more people and we shouldn’t promoting child soldiers has made the best option of dealing with them to not grant child soldiers amnesty.

Child soldiers have been constantly argued, neither side clearly winning. So what are child soldiers? Victims? Or criminals? Whilst reading through many articles of these tragic stories, it becomes clear that these children are victims.

Have you ever thought about the fact that there are children around the world being forced to do many dangerous tasks for the use of a military? Whatever you answer to that is, there are a large amount of kids all over the world in the military. Numerous child soldiers are in a military, regardless if they want to or not. The fact that child soldiers deal with plenty of trauma and that these soldiers are all still children are great reasons to give rehabilitation treatment to escaped and/or rescued child soldiers. There are many reasons why escaped child soldiers should be given rehabilitation treatment.

“Children are cheaper and expendable in an expensive war-scenario” (de Silva 278). Countries are using children in military type spaces because they are easily taught to do tasks. They are thought to be braver than adults, because they are too young to know the danger that is waiting for them around the corner. Using children in the military should be outlawed everywhere, because it is wrong to make other people solve your problems using children. Having a child soldier is an obvious crime, but some people don't see it that way.

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.