Child Soldiers Effects

Former President Charles Taylor of Liberia abducted countless child soldiers during his fight for the presidency in a tumultuous civil war that lasted fourteen years. Taylor was known to be one of the first warlords to recruit young children into a life of soldiering, often requiring them to perform horrific acts upon innocent people. Child soldiers are a major issue in Africa; over six of its countries regularly use child soldiers. Child soldiers go through many struggles most cannot even fathom. These children have problems from the moment they are kidnapped till the end of their life if they do not get the help they need. Protecting children from becoming child soldiers is an important issue because of the negative impact it has on the world
Sayyed's argument states child soldiers have the hardest time assimilating back into the society once they have been in a war environment for too long. Post traumatic stress is keeping former child soldiers from living normal lives because they have been brainwashed to kill; this is how it stops them from living normal lives. Furthermore, Beah Ishmael also states in his article "The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier," in northern Uganda, nearly 30 percent of girls and 50 percent of boys have post traumatic stress. Unfortunately, many of them become suicidal (Ishmael). These statistics illustrate a large percent of child soldiers suffering from PTSD, which ultimately lead to depression, anxiety, nightmares, and suicidal thoughts. More than one third of the children in Uganda suffer from this crippling disorder and do not receive the necessary help or treatment needed to allow them to recover. These numbers show the effects that PTSD can have on child soldiers and how this may stop them from merging into society as functioning
Political author Lewis Eigen, writes in his article "Child Soldiers Are Unfortunately Nothing New,” that "President George W. Bush in 2007 signed into law the Child Soldiers Accountability Act. The law was approved unanimously by both houses of the U.S. Congress, and makes it a federal crime to recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15 — anyplace in the world" (Eigen). Eigen's point is that country's are trying to fix this issue and how some country's have joined together to abolish it altogether. While abolishing child soldiers is hard, society is working to erase this issue from the world. However, some people argue child soldiery is not a big problem and claim that hunger and lack of education is a bigger problem. Critics argue child soldiery is not one of the biggest issues facing our global world, that child poverty and lack of education are bigger problems. Although this may be true, there are currently more than 300,000 child Soldiers in the world right now. That is 300,000 humans that could be working towards a better tomorrow and instead being forced into a life of warfare and horror. Packtor Jordanna, world renowned reporter and journalist points