Ahmed Khadr

Do you remember being a child in elementary school? Remember getting dropped off or walking to school and running off across the parking lot to search for your friends, the games of hide and seek or tag on the playground? Remember returning to your family, and being tucked into bed at night? Some children cannot say they ever did this, or had anything like this, for they were forced into battle, or pressured into joining the rebel army. In 2007, there was an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 child soldiers in combat, some younger than 10 years old. Instead of being dropped off at school, they are prepared for combat then dropped off in a battle field. Instead of running across the parking lot in search of their friends, they are running across dangerous …show more content…
An example, Omar Ahmed Khadr, former child soldier, was detained for eight years, according to Andrea Prasow in an article titled “The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo”, published in The Daily Beast. She said that in those eight years, more information was gathered about Khadr to use against him. There was information that Khadr had supposedly ‘bragged’ about killing a U.S. soldier, as well as claimed that the day he planted landmines to kill U.S. troops was the ‘happiest day of his life.’ This information was in 2002, when Khadr was still sixteen years old, still recovering and medicated from his near-fatal injuries. Andrea Prasow said that “The Jury will never hear testimony about how Khadr was strung up like a pig over the air vent in his cell in Bagram, or that interrogators told him a fictional story of a young man sent to an American prison who was gang-raped and died of related injuries-implying that Khadr might face a similar fare if he failed to cooperate.” This information was of course, used as testimony in the case. The people who are adding onto this testimony are not required to tell all the information, for they want the case to go to their side. Khadr was detained for eight years, as stated before. The sixth amendment stated that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.” The actions the …show more content…
Some children are forcefully taken from homes in small towns that have been attacked, sometimes everyone being killed due to resistance. Some that are stolen are threatened by the soldiers, only going on in hopes to be able to return to their homes, to their old lives. Most don’t know if they’re going to return home, ever. In the article titled “In Support of the ‘The Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2007’; Hearing in the US House Judiciary Subcommittee” Tom Malinowski, the author, states that “communities break down during the wars, children are often separated from families, driven from their homes, and left with no opportunity to have an education.” This helps illustrate the children's’ situation, showing that they most likely return to their old life. Showing that they will never be the same, even after rescue and rehab. Most will most likely never have a full or proper education, as stated