Argumentative Essay: The Responsibility Of Child Soldiers

Would it seem ridiculous if a child was given a gun and uniform and told that they were allowed to go out and fight in a war? Well, in today's world, there are many child soldiers fighting all over the world. Child soldiers are children who become soldiers for a variety of reasons. The most common of these reasons are because they are, sold, captured, or in poverty so they have no choice but to join the military for shelter and food. Once a child soldier has joined they often commit serious war crimes that have fair punishments. With that being said, the topic child soldiers has become a larger and larger controversy across the world today because of whether or not child soldiers deserve amnesty. The reason why it has become like the slavery …show more content…
In many cases commanders use drugs and alcohol to help persuade child soldiers to commit violence without the soldiers even being aware of it. A particularly compelling example of this is when, “The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and to enable them to commit acts they would not ordinarily commit.” (Debatewise.org). What this evidence makes clear is that children are not aware of what they are doing because they are being brainwashed into doing crimes because they are given drugs and alcohol. Child soldiers are being brainwashed by drugs and that means they are unaware of their decisions that they are making. Since they are unaware of the decision they are making, child soldiers should not be held responsible for the crimes that are enforced because of the decision that they have made. Another example of child soldiers being brainwashed by drugs is when the commanders give child soldiers the drugs and then tell the child soldiers that they should stay in the military. Former child soldier Ishmael Beah claims “ You’re fed drugs and then there are always ways of killing people to desensitize you. Your given more drugs after that then you watch more violence just so you will be brainwashed into keeping yourself in this madness.” What Ishmael says about being desensitized and being taught to stay in the “madness” further proves the point of why child soldiers should not be held responsible for their war crimes. Since child soldiers are brainwashed by their commanders to believe that they should stay, they should not be punished and their commanders should be held responsible. The commanders of the Child soldiers are not only committing war crimes, but they are committing crimes of child abuse since they are forcing the child soldiers to take drugs and they are