Argumentative Essay On Child Soldiers

“Prowling the streets of Mogadishu, the shattered captial of Somalia, Awil Salah Osman looks like all the other boys with torn up clothes, thin limbs, and eyes eager for attention.

But 12-year old Awil is different in two ways: He is shouldering an automatic, fully loaded rifle; and he is working for a military that is substantially armed and financed by the United States” (Armed and Underage, Gettleman,6). Child soldiers have been responsible for human rights abuses; many of the worst atrocities during war conflicts, some of whom have been abducted and subjected to horrifying acts of violence. Recent Amnesty International papers provided case studies that illustrate the way children have been drugged, brutalized, or threatened with physical

Children have the lack of making the right decisions based on their positions due to the fact of not realizing what is wrong or right. Some may argue that children occupy command positions in their armed group and are responsible for planning or ordering the commission of war crimes and human rights abuses; therefore, they should not be excused from their actions. Others may argue that most of these children were forcibly recruited and they may have not thought carefully about their decisions. Military commanders target poor countries to recruite child soldiers since they are are poor, displaced from their families, and have limited education. If these factors are present in the child, he or she will be controlled easily. Once the children are recruited into the military, they become dependent on their commanders for food, alchohol, drugs, and money. Child soldiers are easily manipulated emotionally by the military commanders.Once they are drugged, they are not in control of their actions. Sometimes they were also forced under threat of death to commit atrocities. In brief, children are unaware of their surroundings, the environment, and the decisions they make due to the fact that they are