Child Soldiers

      I believe that child soldiers are victims for many reasons. These include the fact that they are drugged, traumatized, and unfairly recruited. Child soldiers are captured from families with less fortune or from refugee camps in the middle of the night. They are used for many horrible things such as sex slaves, messengers and suicide bombers. They are forced against their will to fight against their families and friends. Sometimes they could be forced to kill their own family. The children are brainwashed and drugged to do horrible things. They cannot be held accountable for crimes they commit because they are being forced against their will. 

Using children as soldiers is bad enough. In addition, they are intensely drugged to engage them in killing people. "The only way a child can function in this particular world is if he loses himself completely, and facilities are not in play. If you are fully functioning you're able to show emotion and cannot live in that world," states Ishamel Beah. Beah was a child soldier himself and faced these horrible experiences. They drug the kids to make them feel superior to their victims. The generals want to numb the strong emotions of guilt and fear of the children performing violent actions. However, this is not very affective because, they will always have those horrid memories to live with for the rest of their lives. Also, after they are drugged they can form an addiction making it almost impossible to stop. The poor children look up to the generals who lie and trick them. This shows how obscure the usage of child soldiers can be.

Child soldiers are not only drugged, but many are also separated from their families. “The young boy speaks in a monotone, masking his emotions as he recounts events that irrevocably changed his life, ‘The rebels came and attacked us. They killed my mother and father in front of my eyes. I was ten years old. They took me with them.”

This quote from “Children At War” shows that these kids are being abducted and taken advantage of just because they have nobody else. “According to the United Nations, children are most likely to become soldiers when they are separated from their families.” Ishmael Beah and the article “Armed And Underage” talked about how children are tricked into joining the army. Since they lost family, they think being a part of the army will make them feel like they are part of a bigger family. They are obviously wrong because once they join, they are forced to serve as soldiers. Other kids do not even have the choice of joining. Many are kidnapped and forced into servitude no matter what their family situation may be. These are examples of unfair recruitment involving child soldiers. 

Killing people may be terrorizing but, the hardest part in life is moving on.  Ishmael Beah spoke about his experience as a kid after the war. “I had to withdraw from the drugs and face the memories.” The children that fight are almost always traumatized. For some of them, it takes a very long time to recover. “When I would go to turn on the shower or run water, all I would see was blood pouring out until I looked constantly and realized it was water,” says Beah. 

The issue of have children fight wars needs to be formally addressed. Child soldiers are common around the world and the numbers are going up. Now, we have over 2 million child soldiers worldwide. Though groups such as, UNICEF work to put an end to this problem; more agencies are needed to abolish it. Child soldiers are wrong for multiple reasons. Kids my age are being drugged, traumatized, and unfairly recruited everyday. What kind of society is that? One that needs to be reconstructed. These innocent children should not suffer because they have lost loved ones or have nowhere to go. They should not be forced kill by using drugs. Lastly, they should not be fighting in wars. I strongly oppose child soldiers and the many terrible acts of their cruel generals.