Persuasive Speech On Child Soldiers

One minute you are out playing in your yard...and the next...you are blindfolded and being dragged somewhere you can’t see. When your blindfold is finally removed, you look around, and all you see is that you are in a cabin with sweaty men and maybe half a dozen other boys your age. Suddenly a commander walks up to you and says, “Take this.” He hands you a couple of pills. You do what you were told and take the pills. The next thing you know...you just shot, and killed, the rest of your family. This is the life of a child soldier.
History shows us that the issue with children soldiers is not new. Since the 1980’s, Liberia, Uganda, and Renamo Forces have had over 13,900 children soldiers. All over the world today, there are still, approximately
Certainly not when they are 10 years old. According to an NPR report, the parts of the brain that involve decision making aren’t fully developed until the age of 25 or so. So when kids choose to join the army, they don’t understand the long term effects of what they are doing, because their brains haven’t fully matured yet. Since commanders are taking these kids at the age of 10-15 and giving them drugs, the kids will have absolutely no control over their body and mind in the decisions they are making. The Children and Justice During and in the Aftermath Conflict report states: “Children are often desired as recruits because they can be easily intimidated and indoctrinated. They lack the mental maturity and judgment to express consent or to fully understand the implications of their actions...and are pushed by their adult commanders into perpetrating atrocities...At a young age it is often easy to become intimidated and children often don’t think of the bigger picture, in other words the consequences of their actions.” The kids don’t know the difference between right and wrong, because their minds aren’t ready for all of the violence that they are being exposed to. Since their minds aren’t fully developed, it is very easy for the commanders to brainwash them and make sure that the only thing on their mind is to kill, kill, kill. THAT GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS. An article in Time magazine called Hope for Uganda’s Child soldiers said, when some of the child soldiers were released back to a normal life it was really hard for them because, “You're trained how to torture. You’re trained to kill. It’s all you know.” said Philip Ludara from the Concerned Parents’ Association.I agree with him when he said, “Child soldiers minds aren’t ready witness everything they did, they could be brainwashed to think that it is only thing they know how to do.” I understand that the kids could have refused the drugs and just throw them away, but