What Are Child Soldiers Inhumane?

In some African countries, children are often used as child soldiers, either because they have nowhere to live, are orphans, have nowhere to live, they volunteered, or because they were forced. Some audience may believe that child soldiers are criminals, and some should be tried and because of war crimes they have committed, but they can also be victims because they are taken advantage of and used in ways that are inhumane. One reason on how they are victims is because they don’t really know the impact on the things they are doing. In the article titled, “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety.” Stephen Leahy quotes Vesselin Popovski saying, “Child soldiers are both victims and perpetrators. Victims and their families still want

In the article titled, “Think Again: Child Soldiers” Scott Gates and Simon Reach, they state that “Child soldiers are usually depicted as victims. That’s accurate: Exploited, torn from their families, deprived of education, and forced into battle…” (2009) This quote shows that kids are used to the extent and are being abused to act in a way they are not supposed to or used to, without anyway to fight back. If the children attempt to fight back, they will be severely punished. Also, In the article titled, “Think Again: Child Soldiers” Scott Gates and Simon Reach, they state that, Trained and educated in the ways of guerrilla war, many child combatants grow up in a world where brutality is the norm. The result is a violent gift that keeps on giving — today’s Taliban leaders reputedly cut their teeth in the field as child soldiers fighting the Soviets.” (2009) This piece of evidence was used in the previous paragraph of reasoning, but this quote shows that kids are being used and abused, are trained in these arts and don’t know how to fight it. Some may sat that the kids could act lazy, but will probably be executed if they do so. Also, In the article titled, “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety,” Stephen Leahy, quotes Susan McKay saying, “ ‘The first person they have to kill is someone in their own family — or be killed themselves,’ McKay told IPS

In the article titled, “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety,” Stephen Leahy, quotes authors saying “The children suffer directly as victims of atrocities and indirectly ‘as their childhood, education, family life and expectations are ruined’ ” (2017) This quote shows that the humanity from the children as well as their childhood, is lost due to being taken and transformed into child soldiers. It also shows that they aren’t acting as normal kids anymore and are being treated as savages or some horrible creature that can be bossed around. Others may say that the kids mostly volunteered to become a child soldier but many were forced to go. In the video we saw in a mini lesson, titled Eye to Eye, talked about how the kids were given drugs to get adrenaline pumping and to not feel anything. The man who was in the video had to go through therapy to finally regain all of senses that made him normal. This show that the children are seeing things that no child should see and are being “desensitized” so that they can kill other people, or children without having to feel anything. Others may say, as said in the last couple of sentences, that the kids mostly volunteered to become a child soldier but many were forced to go and fight without having a way to fight