Argumentative Essay: Child Soldiers

“‘At our age, it’s more complicated for the rebels. So they use stronger stuff, like drugs or money, to bait us and to make us march…I remember the attack on Njola-Kombouya village, in the south of Sierra Leone. They made us wake up at 1 in the morning and we marched until 7. A doctor came. He had a small bowl of cold water, and, every two injections, he rinsed his needle in the water. It was always a small vial with red liquid. At first, I constantly felt weak and then after, I had a sense of overwhelming power, I felt myself capable of anything…I had rage, hate, I wanted to destroy everything. You can’t understand, we were placed in such a state that we laughed in face of all that violence, we found it exciting, we had no limits.’ Moussa, 15 , ex child soldier from Sierra Leone (2)” (Humanium, 2011, p.1). Thousands of kids, all over the world are illegally being forced into being child soldiers. As …show more content…
Yes, the crimes that some of these soldiers have committed are unlawful. However, these kids can be rehabilitated and go on to live a normal life. They are also forced, most of the kids have no choice but to go in and join the army, and while in the army, they are drugged which changes how these kids think, act and respond. Also, these kids are very young and can be easily manipulated. Finally, these kids are part of an army, as part of an army they may have to use their weapons and kill people, just like any other army. Overall it becomes clear that it is not these kids that we should be going after, we need to be going after the root of the problem. We need to be going and finding the people who are taking these innocent kids, manipulating, and drugging them. They are the ones who are responsible for these kids actions. They are turning these kids into the war monsters that the are, that is why we need to go after the root of this problem, not these innocent