Victims

Child soldiers ages eighteen and under is a problem discussed all around the world.  Unfortunately most of them are fourteen or younger.  The articles “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, “Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman and a documentary, a CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, explain the life, dangers, and misfortune of child soldiers.  They give details about how the children were forced or tricked into service, how they were manipulated and/or brainwashed while in service, and how they were traumatized after they were released from the army.   Although some might say child soliers are perpetrators, I see them as victims.

One reason child soldiers are victims is because they were forced and tricked into service without choice.  For example, in the article “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, a boy from Liberia who had experienced this was interviewed.  He said, “The rebels came and attacked us.  They killed my mother and father in front of my eyes.  I was 10 years  old.  They took me with them.”  This directly shows one way how many child soldiers were forced into service.  It also shows the boy had no choice because the people would probably kill him too if he did otherwise. He also had nowhere to go because his family was dead.  In the CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, Beah explained, “We thought if we went to the military base we would be protected.  That was not the case.”  The army gave them false impressions that ended up in Beah becoming a child soldier.  Both Beah and the other boy who was interviewed, tell us that child soldiers are victims because they were forced or tricked into service without choice.

Another reason child soldiers are victims is because they were manipulated and/or brainwashed to be killers while in service.  For example, in the CBS interview with Ishmael Beah, he discussed what it was like to be part of the army and kill people.  “You’ve lost yourself.  It completely becomes your life.  You have to do it to survive,” he said.  He was manipulated by fear of being killed if he didn’t cooperate.  Beah also talked about how the soldiers were manipulated into drugs by the commanders, in order not to fully comprehend the awful things they were doing.  In the article “Armed and Underage,” by Jeffrey Gettleman, it said that in the 1980s, an army from Iran gave “12 to 16 year old boys ‘keys to heaven’ to hang around their necks as they cleared minefields during the Iran-Iraq war.”  These keys were meant to “protect them,” but this just shows how child soldiers were brainwashed into thinking that they were protected or doing the right thing. Through these examples, it is shown that child soldiers are victims because they were manipulated and brainwashed to kill while in service.

A final reason child soldiers are victims is because they were traumatized afterwards.  For example, in the article “Children at War,” by P.W Singer, it said, “Girl soldiers are often singled out for sexual abuse, even by their own commanders, and have a harder time integrating back into society at wars end.” I feel utterly horrified that these girls were emotionally damaged to the extent that it was difficult to go back to society!  When Ishmael Beah was interviewed, he said that after UNICEF rescued him, he’d turn on the shower, but see only blood.  This is an example of mental trauma that many of the soldiers faced afterwards.  I feel that it’s very difficult to hear about how these people’s childhoods were ruined, and the rest of their lives affected because they were child soldiers.  In the end, child soldiers are victims because they were traumatized after they fought as child soldiers.

In conclusion, because child soldiers are forced or tricked into servitude, manipulated and brainwashed while in service and traumatized after they were released from the army, they are victims.  Some may still argue that they are perpetrators because they killed people, and that’s a crime.  However, I believe they say this because they are looking at these children from the outside.  Instead, they should imagine what it would be like to face all of those horrors (that were really in the hands of those who captured them) at such a young age, and then come out of it traumatized and charged as a criminal.  Hopefully then, those who believe these child soldiers are perpetrators would realize that they are truly victims.