Child Soldier As A Victim Of Warfare

I began to feel disgust towards the person he had become because, what he was, was all that he had condemned in the past. And then I realized that my reaction was that of the people towards child soldiers. I responded to Ishmael’s livelihood as a soldier without understanding and compassion, but rather with ignorance and blinded rage. The exchange of perspectives not only helped me visualize the effect of war on Ishmael, but also the effect of war on everyone, including the soldiers. Those men— those boys were not born killers, they were drugged and brainwashed by the prospect of revenge. Those impressionable teenage boys were given a purpose, a goal, a family to fight for, and with that combination of drugs and accumulated rage, they were trained to kill without remorse. So, who is to blame? Is it the other soldiers, who they themselves were drugged and brainwashed as well? Is it the lieutenant, who continuously inflicted the revenge driven mantra to kill all rebels inside the heads of orphaned children? Or is it the government and their politics, for allowing the recruitment of boys not tall nor strong enough to hold a gun? Whoever’s fault it is, I just know that I felt great relief when Ishmael was chosen for rehabilitation, but I also felt a great grief wash

Bang! Bang! “At that instant several gunshots, which sounded like thunder striking the tin-roofed houses, took over town. The sound of guns was so terrifying it confused everyone” (Beah 23). In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys his amazing journey through war and hardship as a child soldier. Sierra Leone--a country on the western coast of Africa--was embroiled in a bloody civil war in the 1990’s. Battles multiplied as bloodshed abounded and as a child, Ishmael Beah was forced to survive, find food, and face unimaginable dangers. Running from the battle front was also a routine ordeal. At age 13 Beah was captured by the military and brainwashed into using guns and drugs. As a child soldier, he perpetrated and witnessed a great deal of violence. At 15 he was rescued and taken to a rehabilitation center. With time and continual treatment, Beah was able to recover, to some extent, and reconnect with his Uncle Tommy, who adopted him. He was later chosen to speak to the United Nations in New York City about his experiences as a child soldier. When he returned to Sierra Leone, war broke out throughout the city where he lived, causing many deaths including his Uncle Tommy. Eventually Beah escaped Sierra Leone and managed to reach New York City, where he began a new life. Through the book A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah conveys a central theme of having to survive, at a young age, through the hardships of war with the use of imagery.

Approximately 300,000 child soldiers are actively serving in military forces, terrorist organizations, and gangs. In 1993 and at the age of 13, Ishmael Beah was forced into the same horrendous situation. Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone depicts his own journey of loss, military recruitment, and rehabilitation. Ishmael Beah uses figurative language to support the theme that the capacity for true evil is present in everyone if they are given apt incentive.

Are you aware that right now, at this very moment, there is a group of young boys ages 8-13 who are clenching a gun being ordered to kill against their will? It’s understood that others opinions about the dangers of child soldiers being free are only because they don’t want to risk anything but, isn’t life all about taking risks? You risk your life leaving the house, and breathing. Also, countries should not prosecute child soldiers for the crimes they committed during wartime. There also should not be an international minimum age of criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Here are three reasons why they should not be prosecuted or held responsible. Also that there should not be an age limit. One. Children are afraid, young, and clueless. Two. Children are 99.99% of the time drugged, forced, and brainwashed. “Children are often brainwashed and drugged before they are forced to fight. Their vulnerability can allow warlords to make them into cold-blooded killers” (O'Neill 1 ). Three. Children are independent, lonesome, and they want/need a family. One that gives them love.

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.

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

“Before the war, I had a very simple childhood…..and that changed very quickly” (Ishmael Beah-Child Soldier). Imagine the life of an American child, then think, what was life like for a child in Sierra Leone in 1991?... Abuse and torture, leaving you breathless. A child soldier who thereafter, lives with the emotional effects of war looking for a pathway to humanity. If he survives, the flashbacks will haunt him, yet he journeys on. Welcome to childhood... in Sierra Leone.

These children are forced to leave parents and loved ones to join the army for a long period of time. Nick Taussig, author of the article “Innocence lost: The Child Soldiers Forced to Murder,” interviewed a former child soldier named Ojok, and his tragedy childhood. Ojok expressed his feelings and memories of how he was dragged, and beaten, when forced to become a child soldier. Ojok was taken in the middle of the night, without knowing, and with only his shirt and underpants. He suffered walking 12 hours straight, without food, just water, and this horror continued for 3 days.

War is something that is inevitable; it is something that cannot be stopped, something that is destined to happen. No one can really explain what a war is like without being in one, for none of those people can feel the pain and anguish of losing their family in a time of crisis, or running away in order to save their life. But when Ishmael Beah shares his story of the war he was in, Beah is able to describe the war in Africa in his memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, in such a way that is truly astonishing and is “a breathtaking and […] a truly riveting memoir” (Belinda Luscombe, Time).

This novel was a very enlightening, firsthand account of the atrocities of civil war that not only affect many countries and their citizens, but especially children. Ishmael Beah was separated from his family at age 12 because he and his brother were away from their home in the small country of West Africa known as Sierra Leone, performing in a rap group with friends, when their home village was attacked. Ishmael, his brother and their friends wandered from village to village in search of food and shelter among the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war. Ishmael’s recounting of his experiences is emotionally disheartening and hard for someone like me to truly fathom, but yet I do know that these atrocities exist in our modern world.

“young men who would attach themselves to local warlords for material benefit and training program.” (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 125) For those “excluded and educationally-disadvantaged youth underclass,” joining the army and war was a hope to escape the current social status. (Richard 1996, p. 174) The social status of the class of youth in Sierra Leone is ‘neither citizen nor subject,’ said Fanthorpe. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 126) “The youth of Sierra Leone are required to ‘negotiate’ their identities. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 126) Secondly, the commercialized culture of war was a strong influence on youth in Sierra Leone. “The young males combatants and even commanders modeled themselves on well-known rebel leaders, in style of dress and speech.” (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 127) Students in school even symbolized pencils as weapons. The “globalized youth culture” made rebel became the figure that youth would like to be. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were a soldier? What about a child soldier? Well, the answer is it’s not good (to be a child soldier). This is because they’re being put through so many bad, scary, tough, times. You probably wouldn’t even believe half of the things that you’re about to learn about for what they’re put through, but it’s true.

Many countries are now recruiting children to join their forces. It is mostly countries in Southern Africa that are using these tactics. Child soldiers have been around for many years, but the problems it is causing is just now coming to the attention of government officials.

Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they were drugged under the influence to shoot. “Thousands of boys, some as young as 10 are purchased, kidnapped or terrorized into joining the country’s army.”(Gentlemen) Children aren’t at the age to be responsible when drugged. Children have the choice to live and kill or be killed. The people who use the child soldiers are drugging them to kill with little thought. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are influenced.

Her introductory chapter begins by focusing on the natural dichotomy between child and adult, and their forced convergence when child soldiers are forged. She calls it a paradoxical combination, to intermingle the role of child and of soldier, for they seem to be mutually exclusive, and come at the price of the child’s innocence. The overarching argument is then addressed, as Honwana proceeds to decry this ‘appalling’ practice step by step through four main points which she addresses throughout the book.