Blog 4- Forced to Fight

This image probably triggers one of the most disturbing issues in my mind. Babies are born pure and completely innocent. In certain countries, however, children as young as four years old are forced and trained to fight in combat. Not only is this immorally controversial, but it can also be argued with human rights. Common sense will tell you that it is not natural for children to participate in war.
Parents who try to explain to children that violence is not the answer are right to some extent. It is true that a simple disagreement over who should play with which toy should not be settled by a fist fight. Nevertheless, if a child is being abducted, they should know that it is okay to kick and scream and bite and punch. Drawing the line for when and when not to use violence can be confusing to a child, but it is vital to teach them that line in order to produce a child with a healthy mindset. Enrolling a child in an organized army will only create a killing machine, capable and willing to cause more damage than aid.
According to the website of the Human Rights Watch, child soldiers participate in about three quarters of all the ongoing conflicts in the world. Of these world’s armies, the opinion of whether or not children should be prosecuted for committing war crimes is divided. This means that children are usually forced to be used in the military and then if accused to a war crime, can be thrown into jail. Children should not even be aware that a war is taking place in their country.
Some may say that this is a controversial image in protest that it is not fetuses who are being put into war, and it pulls on people’s heart strings more because it is not even a fully developed human being. I think the reason for the baby still being in the womb is to show the innocence of a child being stripped of them. Whether a baby is unborn or four years old, it still has the same amount of innocence when it comes to war. I believe that the image is extremely effective for this reason.
Child armies, which have terrorized the countries they invade, have grown up and thrived as cruel members of societies, according to BBC News. Drug abuse has been a main factor in Mr. Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel leader in Africa. Former child soldiers say they were forced to be injected with cocaine before being sent into battle. They have gone on to kill, abduct, rape, and maim thousands of citizens from other countries as well as their own, imposing their reign of terror by hacking off the limbs of victims, including children and infants, with machetes.
This is not the way that people should act towards one another ever, let alone how children should behave. It is an abomination that anybody should be forced to commit such heinous crimes. Children being taught to are just even more disgusting. If enough people would take action to stop military use of children, it would just be one step in the right direction to end many wars around the globe.