Argumentative Essay: Should Child Soldiers Be Amnesty?

Should Child Soldiers be given Amnesty?

Imagine this, a war medic is trying to save as many people as they can. They are not trying to make one side win rather than the other, all the medic wants is to keep people from dieing. They go from person to person healing them, then all of a sudden, a child runs out. The medic urges the child to get back to safety, he runs away leaving only two things 1. a curious medic 2. a grenade that will explode in 3...2...1. The medic now needs a medic. What should happen to that seemingly innocent child that ever so carelessly killed a person who was just trying to help anyone he could. Child soldiers should be prosecuted for their war crimes as if they themselves were official war soldiers. These children should be held accountable for their actions because they show no remorse for their actions, they have been doing this since a very young age, and the lack of consequences can teach their commanders that using children is a safe way for them to carry out vicious attacks.

There are many children fighting in war today, and only a microscopic
When that is all they know, that is all they do. To illustrate, a 12 year old boy in Mogadishu said, “What do I enjoy? … I enjoy the gun” (Gettleman). Someone that is only 12 should not enjoy killing people. Therefor, all that they will most likely ever do is enjoy killing people for that is all that they have ever known. In another part of Mogadishu, “Children load bullets twice the size of their fingers”(Gettleman). These children have been doing this all there lives, they practically make up the communities. In this case, “In neighborhoods by the sea, [children] run checkpoints and stop four by four trucks” (Gettleman). There are so many child soldiers all over the world that they even do every day army tasks. As illustrated, these child soldiers load bullets, do every day ary tasks, and most importantly, love the