For over 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army has been at war with the government of Uganda, causing a civil war. The Army's Rebel Groups, have attacked small villages, resulting in thousands of innocent deaths, and the abduction of children to fight with the rebels. In order to maintain these organizations, the Rebel Groups are faced with the difficult task of recruiting individuals. With limited available resources, the Rebel Groups cannot offer any appealing incentives to their recruits, but require complete loyalty (Vermeij, 2009). A child's innocence, trust, and blind obedience make them desirable soldiers. For the Rebel Groups in South Africa, children are therefore strategically used as pawns in combat. Children under the age of 18 make up 60% of the Lord's Resistance Army (Vermeij), and “world-wide, 300 000 children are currently used as child soldiers” (Derluyn et. al). The purpose of my paper, is to explore the reasons why child soldiers remain loyal to their leaders and what measures these authorities take to maintain the power and control in their societies. A stolen innocence morphed into immorality, young boys are turned from child to monster, “we were dangerous, and brainwashed to kill” (Beah, 2007). What motivates these children to fall into such savage behaviour, and how does the Lord's Resistance Army motivate and control its members? Simply put, the socialization of the boys plays an essential role in creating the allegiance and conformity that is most prevalent amongst these Rebel Groups. Therefore socialization is a crucial tactic used by leaders to benefit and improve the army. The role of a strong authority figure for a child, the primary socialization of children, and the process of socializat...
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...e, argues whether a child's behavioural patterns are affected by biological or societal factors (Hewitt et. al. 2008). This debate proves its longevity through the behaviour of child soldiers. It is clear that the boys are affected mainly by their socialization as soldiers, most social scientists agree that the nurturing and primary agents of socialization, are the most influential factors in a child's social development. It is clear that the influence of the LRA on the abducted children, impacts each child's future behavioural patterns, and their perspective on society. The role of the socialization of these children becoming soldiers, is highlighted as a very effective and useful technique to maintain the size and power of the Rebel Groups. It is evident that socialization of the child to solider is essential to achieve any goal of the Lord's Resistance Army.
A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.
In the novel All quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque one of the major themes he illustrates is the effects of war on a soldier 's humanity. Paul the protagonist is a German soldier who is forced into war with his comrades that go through dehumanizing violence. War is a very horrid situation that causes soldiers like Paul to lose their innocence by stripping them from happiness and joy in life. The symbols Remarque uses to enhance this theme is Paul 's books and the potato pancakes to depict the great scar war has seared on him taking all his connections to life. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books represent the shadow war that is casted upon Paul and his loss of innocence. This symbol helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. The last symbol that helps the theme are the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes symbolize love and sacrifice by Paul’s mother that reveal Paul emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.
The lack of full emotional development of adolescents can lead to confusion and pressure while making life-or-death decisions during serious situations such as war. Along with being forced into war, living in inferiority to an overpowering presence only enrages the teenagers and their families more about the situation. Suzanne Collins depicts this class difference by writing, “Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch- this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand at surviving another rebellion” (18). The districts are outraged by the idea of forcing children into a violent atmosphere in which they have to fight each other for their lives.
Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although the majority of the relatively recent child soldier recruitment cases have developed from armed conflicts in Africa, by the beginning of the new millennium the trend increased globally, appearing on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much talked about international issue. The aim of this paper is to look at how this issue is influenced and even aggravated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, have been ineffective in putting a stop to child soldiery and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies has lead to underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and as a result child soldiery.
After the declaration of war by older men, many schools across the world helped further the encouragement of younger generations participating in war through the use of schoolmasters and other students without revealing the dangers war can have on the soldiers physically and mentally. In Paul’s life, his school master Kantorek, glorified the war by withholding war realities by perching to his students that fighting for their country would result in heroism. This inspired Paul and many of his classmates to enlist, but still some were not convinced by Kantorek’s rhetoric. In fear of being ostracized, many obliged to participate in the war. Of course, these glorification where shattered by realty as soon as Paul and classmates ...
It is hardly surprising that boys like Toby who dreamed of battle were unprepared for the reality of war, since the real problems of their parents’ generation were eclipsed by “nostalgic adulation” of myth-like heroes. In the words of Tobias Wolff, “I went into the army…. It seemed to me when I got there that this was where I had been going all along, and where I might still redeem myself. All I needed was a war. Careful what you pray for.” There may be times when war is necessary, but if we send soldiers into harm’s way, then ideally our youth should be under no illusions about what that means and that the repercussions are felt long after the fighting stops.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
In Gwynne Dyer’s article “Anybody’s Son Will Do”, the conversion of civilians to killers is being explained in stages. This articles focuses more on male psychology and malleable people. The author’s belief is that people can be easily brainwashed if they are put in constant stress. To support this idea, the author gives examples of military training around the world which psychologically destroys individual values and loyalties and rebuilds them to make combat troops that will do exactly what has been ordered and defend his groups to the death.
The lost boys of Sudan view war as bad luck, since they have no control over violence in their region. The lost boys did not choose to be born within these two groups, and are not willing to participate in violent activities, in their environment. The boys are not supportive of the war, and it is from this reason that they are fleeing away from their home country to avoid recruitment into militia groups (Ajak, 2006). Therefore, war causes separation of family members and disintegration of ethnic groups. People lose their ethnic identities during instances of war as they seek refuge in new environments. According to the boys, war leads to premature death, fear, hunger, disability, violence, displacement and diseases. War exposes people to more harm than during peaceful periods (Ajak, 2006). The lost boys feel that war is a threat to their lives and schooling. It is a tradition for...
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.
Many children are born into families that are a part of a branch of the military. Parents may wonder if the constant moving and deployment will bring negative effects on a child’s development. The rigorous lifestyle of the military can have negative effects on the children’s development growing up, but the opportunity of living as a military child is a culturally diverse, socially strong, and mature development of characteristics. The military life offers many benefits for raising a child. Have a family in the military lifestyle can greatly help the children’s development of positives characteristics.
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.