Why Child Soldiers Need To Be Saved

Child Soldiers Need To Be Saved

Imagine being being taken away from your family and everything you have ever known to become a soldier. You see people get killed everyday people force you to take drugs to make your performance better you are treated like an animal and you are forced to fight. Oh yeah and you are a child maybe as young as 11 years old. Child soldiers are the victims and this needs to stop! My first reason this selfish horrible crime should stop is that the children are sometimes forcibly recruited. Debatewise.com says that “Most children are forcibly recruited and even when they enlist they may not have thought carefully about their decision or made an informed choice”. ("Child Soldiers, Prosecution").
That being said
is that they are forced to sometime go into a war that ,could kill them , could get them seriously hurt or could be scaring to their mental and physical health. Really the list goes on and on. My next line of evidence for this reason is that hunger can influence them. Debatewise.com stated that “It may be that the child thought it would be safer to enlist or factors such as poverty and hunger influenced their decision rather than a desire to fight”. ("Child Soldiers, Prosecution").Wouldn’t it make sense for a neighboring country or a place that is a little more wealthy to send people there to help so that the kids of that region didn’t have to risk their own life in order to have one meal. Wouldn’t have to go into a war just so they could maybe get a hot meal at night. My last piece of evidence for this reason is some children have not fully made their decision or thought it out fully. Debatewise.com said on their website that “even when they enlist they may not have thought carefully about their decision or made an informed choice.”("Child Soldiers, Prosecution"). Kids are age are normally very impressionable. Maybe all they need is a quick convincing maybe just a little talk little do they know they will make a decision that will change their life and not for the better.

My second reason is that these kids see things that no one should see let alone little kids. My first evidence is One kid got splattered with blood from another person who was shot to death. Ishmael Beah talked to the New York Times about his experience being a child soldier. He stated that “A splash of blood hit my face. In my reverie I had opened my mouth a bit, so I tasted some of the blood. As I spat it out and wiped it off my face, I saw the soldier it had come from. Blood poured out of the bullet holes in him like water rushing through newly opened tributaries.”(Beah) Kids should not be exposed to this at such a young age! That should be enough evidence to say it all. This for sure will scar the child for life!
My second very important piece of evidence is that they
Get addicted to drugs. See people do drugs. Ishmael Beah said many times in the article that he has been addicted to drugs see people done drugs and have done them himself. (Beah) Kids should not be doing drugs let alone adults. Drugs are bad end of story. Kids should not be exposed to this! My last evidence to support my second claim is that they see people get killed a lot. Ishmael in the article he did for The New York times he has explained many encounters that he had with death some even almost on himself. (Beah) Many people have been killed in the eyes of Ishmael. In lot’s of kids who participated in being a child soldier. This is also another reason why we should stop future kids from having to deal with this! My last important subtopic i would like to touch on is that these kids still have violence in their minds after.
My first piece of evidence is there still is violence after they got to the hospital. Ishmael retells his story when he does he mentions that “The rebel boys drew out the few bayonets they had in their shorts and rushed toward us. It was war all over again. Perhaps the naïve men who had taken us to the center thought that removing us from the war would lessen our hatred for the R.U.F..” (Beah)This Proves that being a child soldier does really change you. My second reason is that they still are addicted to drugs. Ishmael said that “I craved cocaine and marijuana so badly that I would roll a plain sheet of paper and smoke it. Sometimes I searched the pockets of my army shorts, which I still wore, for crumbs of marijuana or cocaine. We broke into the mini hospital and stole some painkillers — white tablets and off-white — and red and yellow capsules. We emptied the capsules, ground the tablets and mixed them together. But the mixture didn’t give us the effect we wanted.” (Beah)That being said people do really get addicted to drugs and it will always leave a permanent scar on you. It could very well affect your future. Drugs are hurtful to anyone anywhere and it is very hard to fix. These poor children are exposed to it at such a young age that it’s hard to imagine there life without drugs after. From the time they are child soldiers from the time they are not anymore feels like a lifetime. My final piece of evidence is the kids have trust issues why after the damage has already been done. Ismael also said in the article that “After that, whenever Esther would see me around, she’d smile and ask me how I was doing. At first I detested her intrusions.” (Beah)Which he is clearly showing trust issues. If a normal child that has been raised fair and well has trust issues imagine what a kid going through the pain and suffering these kids are going through. Of
course you would have trust issues. My first counterclaim is that kids some people believe lot’s of kids will have violent tendencies when they are not i child soldier anymore. Why in fact this is true many kids are taken to care facilities where they are nursed back into society. However Ishmael beah has made it back to civilization. (Beah) This proves that with time these kids will get through it. Learn to settle down and live a better life. Though they will never forget the terrible pain they have gone through. My last counterclaim is that many people may think that these kids are going to train more people once they get out of their soldier situation but that is far from the truth these kids learn from their leader. Once you strip them from their weapons and take them into a caring environment the will just want to be kids again. Ishmael has been living a normal life after what he had gone through.(Beah) He started to live a normal life and do normal things. After he got the love that he deserved an so desperately wanted after all of his years of not getting any. This and many more reasons are why Child soldiers are the victims. My main points are that children should not be exposed to this kind of violence and drugs also are something they should not be exposed to. This should not be happening to kids. It is very wrong and emotionally, mentally and physically scaring. So who will take the step forward and stop this from happening to future kids!