When You Kill For The First Time Analysis

Imagine being given a gun and drugs and forced to kill on demand or be killed. This is the life of a child soldier in a nutshell. There is no question that child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are being forced to do things against their will and hardly have a choice of what they are doing. A child in a village doesn’t get to decide if their village is attacked and they are made a soldier. It is wrong that someone, especially a child, should be held accountable for something they can’t control except to lose their own life instead.
First off, child soldiers are being robbed of their childhood, which is a time in life that is one of the most memorable for most people. They are not only being robbed of this but are also subject to being abused and viewing horrific images that can leave deep scars forever. These children also being forced to do things that no child, even most adults, should ever have to do. Giving them amnesty is the least that we should do for these victims. In “Kony’s Child Soldiers, “‘When You Kill for the First Time, You change’,” it talks about a 12 year old child soldier named Norman and his experiences with being a child

soldier. “They’d spent the intervening time marching. “They’d say, “‘Do you want a rest?’ ” Norman says. “If you say ‘yes’, they take you under a tree and kill you.’ ” This is one example of the brutality that child soldiers have to face. Another example of the cruelty is when they are forced to kill. An example of this is when it describes the first time Norman had to kill. “They queued up, each boy beating and cutting the soldier. When Norman reached him, he was only half alive. He lifted his bayonet and pushed it into his chest.” You can’t expect to be held culpable for something like that when you are forced to do it or else you will be killed.
Not everyone believes this though.

Some people argue that in certain situations, child soldiers are too volatile to be let free and therefore not given amnesty. While this is indeed a problem, child soldiers should be taken to a center where they can receive adequate treatment until their psychological state is acceptable for living in the world by themselves. Another reason some people believe child soldiers should not be granted amnesty is because some child soldiers have said that they enjoyed harming others. While this may be true, this is not the true nature of the child and you can hardly blame them for these thoughts because they have been brainwashed and drugged to think this. This should not stop them from receiving amnesty and with the proper psychological treatment, it is nothing to worry

about.
In conclusion, child soldiers should be granted amnesty because they are victims of corrupt warlords and do not have a choice when they are forced to do these horrible acts. It is our duty to grant them amnesty and give them the applicable treatment to help these former child soldiers. Instead of trying to hold these young children accountable, we need to hold the corrupt warlords and leaders accountable for these crimes.