Child Soldiers

Child soldiers are victims for many reasons.  First of all, they don’t have a choice about fighting in wars.  They are forcefully recruited while they are in desperate need of various things such as shelter and family.  Many are captured from refugee camps.  The child soldiers are also taken advantage of.  They are drugged a lot to get them to fight in the battles.  In addition, they have very terrible side affects after the war.

                                                                                        

One reason that child soldiers are victims is that they don’t have an option about enlisting in the army and are taken advantage of.  In the article “Armed and Underage,” it states that most of the children who fight come from poor families.  In the Ishmael Beah video, Beah said that the children would go to the army base looking for help, and would be forcefully recruited.  Many of the child soldiers also came from families that were separated.  This is because the lost and alone children would go to the nearby military base thinking that the people there would help and support them, but instead they are taken advantage of and forced to fight.  The military leaders use the children’s misfortunes to benefit themselves.  Children are also kidnapped by refugee camps in the middle of the night and forced to fight.  They aren’t permitted to leave, and even if they could, they would have no where to go.  Another example of how child soldiers can be taken advantage of is when a terrorist group convinced a semi-retarded teenager to suicide bomb.  The group took advantage of the boy’s disability.  Child soldiers are victims, they are brainwashed and told many lies to make them fight. 

Another reason that the child soldiers are victims is that they are drugged when in battle.  In the Ishmael Beah video, Beah said that in order for a child to fight in a war they had to completely lose themselves.  This shows that the children could not normally fight battles, but when they start in the army, they are immediately given drugs.  This also shows that the military leaders are aware of how this should not be put upon a child, and how the children can not handle it.  The leaders realize the children can’t even be in their correct state of mind in order to get them to fight.  The children are given drugs to feel powerful and good about themselves.

One last reason that they are victims is that these soldiers can get terrible side affects after the war.  In “Armed and Underage”, it says that the children get terrible side affects after they fight.  Many suffer long-term trauma and have issues that can last for their whole life.  In addition, the drugs given to the child soldiers can cause severe addictions that can be extremely difficult to help.  In the Ishmael Beah video, Beah talked about how long it took him to get even somewhat over his terrible memories of fighting.  For a long time after he left the military, he would see blood coming out of the shower and the sink.  He said that he would have to look at it for a while to realize it was just water.  It is extremely hard for a regular soldier to get over being in battle, let alone a small child.

In conclusion, I believe that child soldiers are definitely victims.  They are unfairly taken advantage of, given drugs, and get terrible trauma from the experience.  The child soldiers do not want to be in the war, but are forced to.  Wars and battles are things that small children should never have to experience.  Yet, so many of them do.  Child soldiers have lasting affects from the war, are drugged, and never even wanted to fight.  Child soldiers are definitely victims.