Boy Soldiers
“Katorek would say that we stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had as yet taken no root. The war swept us away.” This is a quote from Erich Maria Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front. Most soldiers in this story are still young. Even though this story takes place during WWI, the enlisting of young and/or child soldiers still takes place in our world today. In Ishmael Beah’s Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a more recent example. In his story, he was forced in the army of Sierra Leone. The following site contains more stories of young soldiers: http://www.child-soldiers.org/childsoldiers/voices-of-young-soldiers
Follow it up with this site, which tells how child soldiers are forced into the army:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/childrensrights/childrenofconflict/soldier.shtml
For a video go to:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1260847315377829589&q=child+soldiers&ei=WcQZSN6ZOI6E4gKxv4XIBg&hl=en
Questions: Why is this a major problem? What should be done? Why is what we are doing now not very effective?
18 comments:
Some countries in Africa like Sierra Leone were going through a civil war and it saddens me that they were using "boy soldiers". These children are abducted from their parents, and some of them see their families get killed right before their eyes. NO child should ever be tortured like that. They then get emotionally and physically scarred for life. because ome of the boy soldiers are only seven years old and some are teenagers. They don't know any better because they are naive. These boys are forced to kill. They were taken, threatened, and some killed because they needed people to fight in a civil war. The RUF camps take them and expect them to be men. But they aren't, they want to be regular children and get and education but they get that stolen from them. For the girls that are taken to the RUF camps they get raped and expected to marry the older soldiers. No one should be taken and forced to do anything they don’t want to. “A society that mobilizes and trains its young for war weaves violence into the fabric of life, increasing the likelihood that violence and war will be its future. Children who have been robbed of education and taught to kill often contribute to further militarization, lawlessness, and violence". Since, theses children were never taught right from wrong they won’t ever know the difference. Taking in boy soldiers make everything worse for the future. Now, what happens when these boy grow up and be men?
Also, taking in boy soldiers they are cheaper then regular men because they don’t demand much and don’t consume as much food.
The countries that are using boy soldiers are not following the international norms and breaking it because all of the other countries are against it. “The use of child soldiers violates international norms. The U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), signed in 1989 and ratified by more than 160 nations, establishes 15 years as the minimum recruitment age." Other countries don’t agree either so then why don’t some of them help or do something about the situation?
http://pangaea.org/street_children/africa/armies.htm
We have UNICEF and demobilization camps but that isn't enough. We need more help for these boys but there is not much we can do for them. It’s a world effort that needs to take place.
This is a major problem because these boys should not be fighting for their country. They are just children their life at this moment should be focused on more child-like things. Like swinging or playing in the sandbox or something like that, not fighting in a war. Why are they enlisting the children and not the men in these countries? These boys are just that, boys, they should not be worried about which one of their friends are going to get killed, or who they will be killing.
I honestly don't know what should be done about this. I mean we can only say hey stop using the children as soldiers for so long. What they need is adults fighting in the war, but obviously their not, so at this opoint i don't think that there's anything we can do, short of going in there ourselves, but we are already pulled thin with our own troops.
At this point i think the way of making it more effective is to get the United Nations involved. At this point i think thats all we can do.
300,000 CHILD SOLDIERS!!! That's terrible, how can their government or th UN let this go on! I don't understand why anyone can let all of these horrible things go on everyday do nothing!! I know there is nothing we personally can do at this time but why isn't anyone else? I agree with the comment made about getting the UN involved. I think that there is no reason in the world why these young boys should be fighting against grown men. They should be worrying about school and their education not who they're going to shoot next. Why don't the countries hire or draft MEN to fight? These children shouldn't be ripped from their homes and family! It isn't right!
Humanity is a cruel subject. We try to reflect on the past in our history classes so we can learn from past mistakes, for the sake of preserving our ways of life. I think it fails to mention in our history books, however, that humans are sometimes selfish hypocrites. We try to protect and secure our ways of life, and create laws that correspond to those ideals. In spite of this, we shun other groups of people, because we do not accept them, and because we don’t accept them, we deny our own policies. This is in direct relationship to the problem of child soldiers. In the fight for certain groups to preserve their ways of life, they involve innocent children, and prolong the situation. Compromising is slim, and the ideas that could reflect change for the better are those of the corrupted children themselves. Is humanity really destined to continue this way? Use our own children as pawns in our ironically childish games? I am appalled by many actions everyday, but this one seems to really get at me. I believe its my lack of understanding. How could progress ever be made, when these wars just go in circles. It all starts with how children are taught, and that leads to the rest of their lives.
They are childern, going through things that no one should have to go through. Leaving their homes and families to fight in a war that sometimes they dont know whats going on. All they know is that they have a gun and they are suppost to shop the enimey. When the war is over these kids are going to be left with nothing! Some will die and others will know only how to shot a gun. Their whole childhood will be lost for their country, a civil war that might come back? Whats the point?
This is one of the biggest problems our world is facing today. Using children for soldiers is totally ridiculous and the leaders which allow this to go on should be ashamed. A child cannot depict a right and wrong situation this early in their life. These are the future leaders of our world. They are the ones who end up fighting in terrorism attacks and why is that, because they have grow up thinking that its okay to do these terrible acts. The United States needs to step in and help these children rather than wasting time in other countries.
I agree with matt barker that this is ridiculous. Children should not be taught how to shoot a gun and not know how to read or write. They are the future. Though this is wrong, I understand why there are so many child soldiers. They have no choice because they are treated like slaves. Children are like sponges. They soak in everything from their surroundings. If a child sees nothing but war, then war is what he/she will ever know. I agree that we should do something to stop this, but there is really nothing we can do. Our best option is to stop this conflict. Whether we enter this war or not, forcing boys to the live the life of a soldier should be stopped.
The armies are using soldiers because they need bodies. They need people to fight and die for their country. This kind of abuse on children goes way back in history and in my opinion will always be used. If you train the children young, then they grow up to be killing machines and the elite army. There truly is no solution to this problem.
This disturbs me however that countries still use children as soldier. The U.S not that long ago had the draft were eighteen year olds had to enlist in the army. That is still too young to be taken from your home, and sent to a foreign place were you are being shot at and expected to kill.
In one of the articles listed it mentioned that there are children soldiers being used in Afgahnistan. Does that mean American soldiers are fighting against children? If so that's quite a spin our media has choosen not to reveal to us, don't you think? However, I could see why the media would also choose not to tell us this. They want support for the troops, if it appears our troops are fight children, what would that do to the support. But back to the real problem, why aren't we doing anything to help these kids. They obviously don't want to be fighting, it mentions they're terrified and forced to fight. Isn't this the sort of thing we suppose to be fighting wars to end. It's the 21st century and yet we allow this to happen. What's that say about us as educated human beings. There is no reason for this to continue, someone needs to do something. But Who?
The idea of children being soldiers is repulsing. From a soldiers view point, how could you even shot at a child, but they are shooting at you? It is horrible to see ten and twelve year olds become generals in a army. Like Jordan and Matt said, just to think about once these kids go back home, if they ever go back home. All they know is war, which leaves a whole generation violent and corrupted. I think governments that are in the United Nations to take actions no matter the cost, because these kids are our future. How would you feel if you were out there, or if one of your siblings were out there?
After reading two books, where the narrator is a child or young soldier, it has changed the way I see the world and war. Just imagine how the world looks through these kids eyes. A rebel army comes into your village and kills your family in front of you. Then the government army comes in and tells you to fight for them against the rebels, telling you things like "The rebels are the monsters who killed your family." You are filled with rage and hate. That's just one scenario. It's sad to think that many of child soldiers' stories are similar to the example I gave. These children need to be helped, but rehabilitation for them will not be easy. Ishmael Beah said that one the biggest struggles for him was withdrawal from all the illegal drugs he had taken while he was in the army.
Children being used as soldiers is a major problem because children who are much too young to fight are being forced to. They are held against their will, and threatened with death if they try to escape of disobey orders. They are used because they eat less and are easier to manipulate. Some are even sent into battle high on drugs to give them courage.
I'm not sure what we could do to directly end child-soldiery through out the world, but I think the best we could do is to donate and help spread aware about the horrors of children being used as soldiers.
What we are doing now isn't necessarily ineffective, but there just isn't much we can do short of going into the war-zone and taking the children out of combat, which is an unrealistic and unreasonable task to assume upon ourselves.
I can't even begin to describe how outraged I am with having these young soldiers fight. Especially when they are forced into combat and are forced into taking drugs. These people don't even care about the kids, they just want them for reinforcements. What kind of reinforcement is a kid? It's just not fair to these children. However, there truely isn't much we can do from the perspective we are currently in. Without completely engaging into this war, we cannot stop this problem. The U.S. should just make sure that they don't get involved with child soldiers and be the role models that we are.
well, i agree with whoever said that people were hipocrites... thats about it though. who says its wrong for children to fight? us? if they dont think its wrong, then its not. we, and really people in general, try to help people who dont realize they need, or want your help. isnt it hipocrytical to say it is wrong to train or adapt children to violence, when our top selling video games are those such as call of duty, or halo, those types of games? children naturally crave violence... thats what we as humans want. yes our wars do go in circles, but what is the destination? who says the destination isn't to go in circles? sorry, im getting off topic... my point is that the children don't know anything different, and they are expected to do those things, so its okay. this sounds ignorant, and selfish and everything else, but this is how i feel. some countries might say that our 18 rule is too young... are they going to come into our country, and stop us?
I agree that children fighting is simply wrong. Although it might be acceptable to such countries, I don't think it's acceptable to society as a whole. Especially when young girls who join are being raped. At 9 years old, (which is the age of some of these "soldiers"), I don't believe I yet possessed the mental capacity to understand war as a whole. I can hardly remember anything that happened when I was 9. Yet some of these children are watching their families die right in front of their eyes. The article also states many are being abducted by force. I think that's absurd. These children aren't even receiving a chance to live the slightest fraction of their lives.
Well, obviously it's a major problem because these kids are the 'next generation' and all they are being taught is violence and hate. Whenever they must step up and take care of their country how do you think it would be run?
What we should, and what should we be doing are complicated questions. We cannot be the world police and just overthrow countries that use child soldiers because thats too much for us to do. But this isn't an issue where you should just sit back and hope for the best.
I agree with Sabrina that we can’t be the world’s police, but they are kids. A kid is a kid even if it is from a different country. They are too young to have to go through such trauma’s in life. The U.S. should try to explain this to the countries who force little boys into combat. A country should never need soldiers that badly that it has to use kids as part of its army. They are not even well trained to use a gun let alone shot one.
Personally I think it is insane to use children as soldiers! Children should not worry about shooting people or getting high or even carrying around guns for that matter! Yes, absolutely this is a major problem and hardly nothing is being done. I completely agree with Mary children should not fight for their country.
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