Kill or be Killed: Child Soldiers

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“Children, you call them? They can pull a trigger just as well as veterans …” (Colonel Marcus Cullen, War Hammer 40,000). People should question the world in which they live when a child is forced to become a soldier. Especially when the children are under the age of 18, they should not be required to fight. Many children who are demanded to fight are taken from their families. These young adolescents are mistreated; malnurtured, abused and the girls are usually used for sexual purposes.

Everyday a child, from the regions in Africa, is recruited or abducted from their family to fight in an army. Children who are drafted to fight usually do not have parents and are older (The Situation). Some volunteer for income, food, or because they are pressured into combat (The Situation). Those who are taken from their homes or families happen to be in a war zone, misplaced or are poor (The Situation). The children who are homeless, and know the generals are out for them end up hiding and running for their lives throughout the night. Families and children hide from the captors underneath schools, churches and cellars (Steel). Parents are forced to tell where their children are hidden, if not they are tortured and even killed (Steel). After being abducted the children are then enforced to march to camp, anyone who attempts to escape is killed (Steel). As soon as these children are captured they are immediately trained to fight.

To transform these children into killers, there are many tactics used. Training was an extremely difficult time for most children because they had to learn to not be emotionally attached after slaughtering men and women. Many times a child was required to kill members of their village or even family (Steel). These ...

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...ing, nothing is ever the same. Sometimes families wont accept their children back because they are afraid they might be murdered (Parry). These children are scarred forever with what they went though. Girls and boys suffer through traumatic stress, nightmares, depression, flashbacks and aggressiveness, most have to be treated psychologically and yet they still will not return to normal because the memories are impacted in their brain forever (Steel).

Works Cited

Aldhous, Peter. "Brutalized Child Soldiers can Return to Normality." Student Research Center. 10 May 2008: pg. 6-7. 2-p. Print. http://web.ebscohost.com

Parenthetical Notation: Peter Aldhous, Student Research Center

Parenthetical Notation: “Steel”

Steel, Michelle, and . "Child Soldiers." Vision Insights and New Horizons. Child Soldiers Global Report, n.d. Web. 17 Nov 2013. .

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