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.