Young Blood, Old War

I encourage everyone to re-blog about post or ping back and help spread the word. Create awareness where there was none and remind those who forget

War has existed for as long as man has had free will.

What has humanity come to?

War has become increasing devastating in this modern era, from the catastrophic weapons and nuclear damage which continues to hover on the horizon; but there is another growing weapon that has for the most part, been overlooked. This is the use of child soldiers.

Recently I finished re-reading the book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. It tells the story of the author’s life as a child soldier. A compelling memoir of tragedy, shocking brutality and hope. Beah writes of his life in Sierra Leone in Africa, and how as a young boy, he was torn apart from his family and forced to fight. He lives now in the United States after escaping the conflict in his country. Even after finishing the book for a second time, I find myself moved deeply by the plight of the children. I can’t imagine any of it happening to me and how I could get through it. Imagine yourself forced from your home at a young age, perhaps only 10 or 12 years old, having your mother and sister violently raped before you are forced to kill your entire family. You are then taken away from your burning village to learn how to slaughter, maim and bring about the destruction of another life.

One of many

You are given drugs and a gun and told to shoot those who run towards you without ever having any military experience as other soldiers, intent on spilling your blood charge towards you. If you flee you die. If you stay you might very well die. So you take aim and fire.

It is warfare waged by the young; do you ever remember a child starting a war? The word, “child” and “soldier” should never be put together. No child should ever have to wield a gun and fight, never having known what it was like to play or to have real friends. They live in fear and in a life of violence, sex and drugs, fighting a battle that was never theirs to fight. Stated as “an illegal and morally reprehensible practice” by UNICEF, this use of children as combatants still continues. It is an issue that many people are either unaware of or ignorant to. Did you know about this?

Some Quick Facts:

• There are an estimated An estimated 300,000 or more child soldiers are actively fighting in at least 80 countries around the world
• Millions more, unaccounted for, fight in fight in a state of undeclared war or genocide
• It is estimated that 43% of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers, 90 % of whom are on the front lines.
• In the last decade, more than 2 million children have been killed in combat (about 500 per day)
• Many rebel groups use child soldiers to fight the government, but some governments also use child soldiers in armed conflict.
• As part of their recruitment, children are sometimes forced to kill or maim a family member – thus breaking the bonds with their community and making it difficult for them to return home.
• Not all children take part in active combat. Some are also used as porters, cooks and spies.
• Girls are often used as wives and sex slaves for the male combatants.
• Whilst most child soldiers are abducted or conscripted into the fighting forces, some also volunteer or are volunteered by their parents.
• It is estimated that 40% of all child soldiers are girls. They are often used as ‘wives’ – i.e. sex slaves.

Hitler Youth Promotional Poster

Beah’s story is only one of many other child soldiers fighting in conflicts, and wars around the world today. There is so much violence; something that many people have if not accepted this disheartening fact, at least have come to acknowledge that it is a truth. It goes even as far back to World War II and the Für, Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew that it to make a new country with a new mindset, you not only had to change the vision of the people, but capture the minds and spirit of the children. In this, Hitler created what was to become known as the Hitler Youth. Children were loyal only to Hitler and the cause, many even going as far as to turn their own parents over to the law if they heard their parents talking against Hitler.
A few years ago, I did an extensive research paper on the Hitler Youth, a topic that I personally wasn’t very aware of even from history class until that point (a very fascinating topic if you are interested). The United Nations swore against the use of children in such a way, but to this day, similar things are happening all over the world.

Further Information on Child Soldiers:

• Invisible Children
• Child Soldiers
• Right to Play
• War Child
• UNICEF – Child Soldiers
• IRIN News Report Article (recommended read)

A Bullet for Your Thoughts
[click to see more images]

Tags: History, International, Literature, People, Politics, Society
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