Children In War Research Paper

First off, child soldiers are often forced to be recruited. “Often they are abducted at school, on the streets or at home.” ("From Cradle to War." Amnesty International. Amnesty International USA, Web. 3 May 2016.) Almost all child soldiers are forced to do things as a soldier that they wouldn’t actually do, such as hurt or kill others. So although some child soldiers want to hurt or kill, most don’t want to. So obviously, most child soldiers are forced to do bad things that they don’t want to do, and wouldn’t do if they hadn’t become a soldier.

When needed in combat these young kids are given serious drugs to morph their minds into a different kind of thinking. The type of thinking that makes them believe it’s ok. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says “drugs are chemicals that affect the brain by tapping into its communication system and interfering with the way neurons normally send, receive, and process information.” Which is a more complicated

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.

War, in and of itself, is an atrocity, but it becomes even more abhorrent when children are pulled into the conflict. Unfortunately, some military groups find children useful in the war effort. The wars these children are forced to be part of often leave wounds--both psychological and physical, but these kids can be healed, at least to an extent, and rehabilitated. Children are often used in war because it is easy and efficient to use them as compared to their adult counterparts. For one, children are easy to control, coerce, and indoctrinate.

Since they may be ten or even younger when they join the army they would probably have very little education so they would not be able to support themselves. They are given drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol and can become addicted to them. The drugs changes their behavior and makes it easier to convince them to fight and kill even on the front line. With the addition of the drugs they may even if slowly begin to surely enjoy killing others. Additionally, a girl that is used as a child soldier is subject to other abuse such as rape.

“Children in the Battlefield” Marcy Schwartz described about the boys that have served in the military for generations, including the Civil War.The boys would have to lie about there age to get enlisted. School teachers would use their influence to get there students enlisted. Parents would help get boys enlisted if they could not get in theirselves. They would run away from home to get enlisted in another town, and then they would change there name so they could not be found. If the boys were drummers they would be assigned to many different jobs they must do. The powder monkeys brought the bag and buckets of powder to the men. Homesickness was a big deal during the war for young children. For the young children it was hard to find uniforms

These kids are in no condition for fighting in armed rebel groups but the numbers of these kids are starting to go up. “Over 8,000 children are fighting in armed rebel groups, battling the U.S-backed government.” They are taught to kill and are forced to think that killing is a good thing, plus, the guns they are supposed to use are even heavier than most of these kids, so that clearly shows they shouldn't be using them. These child soldiers need to be put in rehabilitation instead of being put in prison, they are being forced to take drugs, they are brainwashed into thinking

Visualize men with guns breaking down your door and pointing them at your family. Now imagine these men taking your children, forcing them to serve in their military force. In only an instant, your children are gone and you are left with no knowledge of the fate of your kids. As terrifying and seemingly impossible as this imagined scenario may be, it is a stark reality for many families in third world countries. Where families fear not if their children will be taken but when those doors will be broken down, and their screaming children will be dragged out through the front door. The parents know that they cannot not stop these men even if they attempt to. Yet, in an unreasonable twist becoming a child soldier is not only a gamble with the reaper, but it is also a chance to survive. Enough food to survive is more or less guaranteed, while back at home the odds of surviving are insurmountably against them. Becoming a child soldier is a double edged sword that is neither ally nor enemy to the children. These children are abused and coerced into staying with the men who ripped them from their families. Those that attempt to escape or resist are torn down brutally in order to be rebuilt, while those that embrace it sacrifice their humanity and risk the onset of psychologically damaging PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Militias and rebel forces, strained on man power, turn to child soldiers as a cheap and readily available replacement source. Trained to become war hardened

27% of child recruits in the Sierra Leone civil war who were interviewed by Theresa Betancourt’s research team had killed or injured others during the war. 77% saw stabbing and shooting close-ups. “We went from children who were afraid of gunshots to now children who were gunshots”, a dispirited information reported by Ishmael Beah in the article EX-Child soldiers: Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water from CNN. Children learn from adult’s actions. Kids such young ages are more likely to be influenced by the violent actions from their commanders and adult fighters. In effect, they would become vicious human beings.

However this is not a reality for children in war zones. Many of them get abducted from schools, out of their homes, or anywhere the rebels or the government is able to get to them. But, why are children the preferred “soldier”? According to Somasundaram in her article “Child Soldier: Understanding the Context, children are easily impressed, which is the choice of some military leaders. They believe children are less likely to question orders than adults due to fear” (Somasundaram, 2002 page 1270). Children easily believe what they are told, as their experience and maturity levels are not the same as adults. In addition, uneducated children are more likely to believe these “leaders” as they may not know any

For example, child soldiers join through family loss. They have nowhere else to go after they lose their family, besides joining the army. According to the article “Tales from Uganda's female former child soldiers”, the child soldiers have been attacked and so have their families, leaving them no other choice but to join the army since that’s would’ve been a safer place. It states “Grace was only 14 when she was torn away from her family” (Marc Ellison, 2016). This reveals that most of the child soldiers have mainly joined through family loss. This also reveals that not only boys are made into child soldiers, but girls as well. From what Grace says, it is obvious child soldiers don’t join the army without a justified reason. Additionally, people may argue that child soldiers are just murderous people and should be prosecuted, however, they don’t comprehend the situations they have gone through. Additionally, child soldiers don’t have any choice rather than becoming a child soldier to survive. According to “Summative Essay: Child Soldiers”, child soldiers have nowhere else to go and try to do what they can to gain a family and to survive. It states “They kill to stay alive and those who try to escape are killed.” (, ). This demonstrates that child soldiers are innocent and are like any other children at their age. They want to survive and be

Secondly, Childrens are easier to be controlled than an adult. The reason why is because when you tell a child that you will give them something in return of a favor the child will agree to do it , but for an adult it is harder to convince them. Many groups tend to have more child soldiers because of this reason. An example of this would be Al Shabaab. When children join organizations like these there are several effects. Many children can get mental illnesses because when they are in war their brains captures the horrible moments, a type of illness that may occur is Anxiety Disorder. Another issue that faces many child soldiers is the requirements that they have to accomplish. For example, their commander might tell them that they have to

More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol make the children become more compliant, enabling them to commit atrocities which they never would have before.” This shows that the drugs and alcohol that are being given to the child soldiers are helping the leader brainwash them to make them think that committing horrible crimes is a good thing to do. Since the child soldiers are on drugs and alcohol, they make poor decisions of killing innocent people without even knowing they are doing it. Some may argue that the children can refuse the drugs, but when you are living in a tragic life of your friends and family dying beside you on the battlefield, why would you want to have a conscious mind when you could take a drug to forget all about

When children are turned into these killing machines, they forget who they are. It is not their fault they have forgotten who they are. The child soldiers should be granted amnesty. Even though they have committed these crimes, they should be given forgiveness. Most of the children don’t know that it is really bad what they are doing. They only know to kill. They have been taught that if they disobey orders, such as killing people and enemies, they will be sentenced to either severe punishment or death. Plus on top of that, they are brainwashed into thinking that killing is right. But they don’t know it isn’t. By stopping them from being forcefully turned into killers and so called murderers, it could change how a whole new generation is. That

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