Child Soldiers Argumentative Essay

            Child recruitment is a large and terrible problem that usually occurs in war-torn, unstable countries.  The recruiters especially like to take children that have recently lost their families and don’t know what to do with themselves.  “Child soldiers are ideal,” a military commander from Chad told Human Rights Watch.  “They don’t complain, they don’t expect to be paid--and if you tell them to kill, they kill.”  (“Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman in Congo) Many of these children respect their troops as their family, and have a sense of loyalty to them.  I believe that child soldiers are victims.  For example, children in Sierra Leone went to a military base for help because they had lost their family and needed protection during the war.  Instead of getting help, they were forcefully recruited and given drugs so that they didn’t feel as bad when they killed people.  They were not themselves.

            The children were given no choice as whether to leave the army or to stay.  They didn’t know what to do, because if they left they would have been killed by rebels.  The only reason they stayed was to be safe.  Joining the army became a survival skill.  When they were actually killing people they weren’t themselves.  Officials had given them drugs and now they were addicted.  They couldn’t think and they lost themselves completely.  “This became our reality, we lost ourselves completely in this war…it becomes your life…” (CBS Eye-to-Eye Witness Interview with Ishmael Beah)  This shows that the children were not choosing to kill those people.  While drugged, they were worried about their new ‘family’.  They were manipulated into thinking that the generals had some sort of magical power that would keep them safe.  This belief caused the young confused children to give faith to the crazy recruiters; they were loyal because of fear of losing their lives.

            These children did not ask for this to happen to them.  They were taken away and forced to kill people in their own villages.  The only reason they took drugs, besides addiction, was to numb the pain of killing all these innocent people as well as the hate for what the government had done.  The children found difficulty in killing people at first.  “They trained us to fight,” a boy continues.  “The first time I killed someone I go so sick, I thought I was going to die.  But I got better…. My fighting name was Blood Never Dry.”  (“Children at War” by P.W. Singer)  Once humanities groups, like UNICEF, had rescued children they were taken to rehabilitation centers in stable countries.  It took years and years for these children to face the memories and quit the drugs.  Ishmael Beah tells a small anecdote in his CBS interview about how whenever he would turn on the tap water or shower, all he would see was blood coming out of the faucet.  It took a while, and he had to really stare at the liquid to realize it was just water.  He had terrible nightmares about combat.  This unfair fighting has taken away so much of these children’s lives.  And it is not only boys.  Girls are usually made as servants and cooks and are subject to sexual abuse, including rape.

            The other side states that child soldiers are perpetrators.  They might say that even though these children were forcefully recruited, they chose to stay and fight with that army.  They chose to, “burn down huts and pound newborn babies to death.” (“Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman in Congo)  Though if they had left, rebel groups would have killed them.  Should a child really have to make the decision to give up their life so others can live?  That is a terrible way to grow up, and a very difficult decision.  Only someone in their right mind would even be able to think about doing something that selfless, and these kids weren’t in their right mind.  They were extremely heavily drugged.  The only thing they could think about was killing the enemy and not being killed.  There was no room in their minds for leaving their ‘family’, who had so far protected them like they promised they would.

            In many unstable countries, young people in unfortunate situations are manipulated into joining armies when war breaks out.  They stay with the army because it is the only support they have.  These children do no want to kill people, so therefore they are not perpetrators.  They are forced and tricked into obeying commands.  When considering the facts, child soldiers can only be seen as victims.

Reading Response to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

       The Book Thief by Markus Zusak uses very creative writing skills to display the life of a little girl during World War II.  The author describes everything with great detail and gives little snippets of translation or observations throughout the story.  This book has a lot of unhappiness and tragedy, as do most stories from this time period.  The little girl starts off as already being extremely cautious and she sleeps with one eye open.  She and her family are aboard a train and she is looking after herself and her family.  Something wakes her up and she crawls over to find her brother.  She finds him dead.  This tragedy has her distraught and panicked.  She lets her guard down, which is a rare thing.  The disbelief is fresh in her mind.

       Then she wakes her mom with a frightened shake.  Her mother learns of the boy's death and becomes as doubtful as the little girl is.  They shake the boy, willing him to wake up.  But he doesn't.  They tell the train officials and then are directed to get off the train.  The little girl's character has already changed, even this early in the story.  She went from a girl keeping an eye on her family and having everything under control to a girl who has just loss her brother and can't believe it.  She doesn't care about taking care of her family anymore because she has already failed.  Though this is not the girl's fault, she takes blame for it, as would anyone.  They buried the boy in a cold, graveyard with the company only of a priest and two gravediggers.  On the way out of the cemetery the girl finds a book that one of the gravediggers, the apprentice, has dropped.  She picks it up and takes it with her.  This is how she began to get her name as the Book Thief.  She misses her brother more than anything in the world, and all she needs is a stable, loving mother.
       Although her mother wants to be there for her daughter, she cannot provide enough for her at this terrible time.  Their mother intended to take both of them to the foster home, but unfortunately the little girl's brother did not survive the trip.  Now the girl did not have a companion to help get through this tough experience with.  She was all by herself.  It took her 15 minutes to be coaxed out of the car once she arrived at her foster house.  Though I think she has a special connection with the 'father' who smokes a lot of cigars because he is the one who got her to come out.  When she did enter the house she was holding his hand and her small suitcase with the gravedigger's book inside.

Reading Response to Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow (#2)

       The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow shows how lots of propaganda can convince people to do terrible things.  During World War II, a young Jewish boy, with Aryan looks, who lives in Berlin, Germany learns to box.  Boxing was considered the superior sport of the 'true' German race.  The boy, Karl, got by with boxing for about 5 years, but when he faced his former nemesis in the junior championship tournament and started to beat him hard, someone tipped off the judges about his race.  He was disqualified from the tournament and his dreams were crushed.  He thought that if he could become a professional boxer that the Nazis might see how Jew aren't that bad.  This little anecdote shows how serious the Germans during WWII about segregating the Jews and Gypsies from the Aryans.  They wouldn't even let a German looking, Jewish boy fight an Aryan.  Adolf Hitler used propaganda to help convince people to get rid of the Jews and Gypsies.  He targeted the youth in a lot of ways that most people don't know about.  He started a club, Hitler Youth Club, that was a little like boy scouts.  The club gave its members swastika pins and belt buckles to wear to school to 'advertise'.  Karl wanted more than anything to be part of that club, but his father wouldn't hear of it.  Hitler also targeted parents because if parents had a certain political view, than their children would most likely share that political view.  Then kids would also share that same hatred toward the Jews at school.  They would torment the Jewish kids.  Karl's little sister who had more Jewish appearances got rotten apples and eggs thrown at her.  She was a little girl who felt unwanted and unloved.
        Germany was not proud of their getting rid of the Jews.  When they hosted the Olympics during that time period they replaced signs saying no Jews with signs advertising the Olympics.  They didn't want the rest of the world to know what was really going on.  They wanted to keep their dirty little secret.  I think what the Nazis did was sick but I also think that Hitler was a very smart man.  He knew that kids like stuff to show off.  How about make a pin to wear that will no only pressure Germans to join, but present the Jews and Gypsies nice and clear.  Signs are also necessary to help remind people what is right and what is wrong.  Everywhere people posted signs saying, "No Jew and No Gypsies."  The final step that Hitler executed was making the rules of society, laws.  It became the law that no Aryan could have a relationship with a Jew.  Jews were kicked out of their non-Jewish schools and lost all of their non-Jewish friends.  So now Aryans weren't just tormenting the Jews because of fear of public shunning, but now they were doing it because it was the law.  Hitler knew that propaganda brought people together.  People want something to be a part of.  They want to have friends that believe the same things they do and go to the same places that they do.  This is how Hitler convinced so many people to do such terrible things. Propaganda.

Reading Response to Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow

       Robert Sharenow displays the struggle to deal with diversity in The Berlin Boxing Club.  This book takes place in Berlin during World War ll.  The main character, Karl, is technically Jewish, but doesn't practice any religion.  Though the Germans responsible for killing or terrorizing the Jews did not care.  Some boys at his school found out that Karl had Jewish backgrounds and beat him up badly.  In the beginning Karl had tried to hide the fact that he was Jewish, this shows how scared he was of being different than the rest.  He didn't want to stand out because he had seen what would happen if he did, he saw how the couple other Jewish boys in his school were tormented every day.  Today diversity is a good thing, but back then in Berlin...not so much. 

       After a while, Karl was unfortunately discovered.  Three of the boys who beat up the Jews figured out Karl's background.  They caught him in a stairwell and started taunting him.  He was so scared.  The author did a great job describing this part.  I think a lot of people today understand that Jews were taken to camps and killed, but not many think about the everyday torment.  High school is hard enough, especially when you are different than everybody, but if a large political leader is killing Jews then the kids at school think why can't we?  They were for Hitler and they wanted him to like them so they bullied all the Jewish kids they knew, including Karl.  Karl was scared to go to school.  He felt like he had brought on shame to his family.  His father was a very poor artist who needed business very badly, but if people around the community found out he was Jewish, they would probably be to scared to visit his gallery.

       One time at one of Karl's father's showcases, Max Schmeling, a close friend of his dad, a very famous boxer attended.  When people asked Karl about bruises on his face, from the tormentors at school, Karl simply told them that he had fell down the stairs.  Though Max could tell that he had gotten punched to the face.  Max offered to give him private boxing lessons in exchange for a painting from his dad's gallery.  Karl excitedly agreed.  

      Diversity can be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on how people take it.  One thing is for sure, someone should not be afraid to be themselves.  This was hopefully a large lesson learned from WWII.  Great people like Max Schmeling take diversity and make it a good thing.  Karl thought he was different because he was a small, scared Jewish boy, but he doesn't understand at the moment that being different could also mean that you are a world renowned boxer who can fend for yourself.  Diversity is unavoidable, yet it is still a problem today.