Children In War

Words: 865
Pages: 4

War has been a fundamental aspect of every thriving civilization since the beginning of time: the Greeks and Romans engaged in bloody naval warfare; Medieval Europe was filled with clashes between kingdoms and empires; and the United States only came to global prominence through the First World War. However, a new form of combat was recently introduced to the battlefield: the use of children as fighters and warriors. The topic of whether or not those children involved in combat should be held accountable for their wartime atrocities is a widely debated on many platforms, both politically and ethically. While child soldiers are occasionally to blame for their wartime actions, in the vast majority of cases, they either had no other option, or were forcibly brought into the war—through no fault of their own.
Firstly, many children often engage in the war when they have no other option, such as when their family, or they themselves, are in danger. For example, in the article, “Firing guns, finding bodies: Life for Yemen's child soldiers” by Sarah El Sirgany (2018), Younis, a child from a family residing in the war-torn nation of Yemen, “crouched on their house's rooftop firing a machine gun to scare [the
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“ ‘At times, and without knowledge of our military leadership, a parent accompanies his young son with him to the battleground.’ ” (“Firing guns, finding bodies: Life for Yemen's child soldiers” by Sarah El Sirgany, 2018) This clearly shows that although the children themselves are engaging in the war, it is an external source that is encouraging them to take the first step and take up arms against the opposition. Thus, the blame for the atrocities committed underage soldiers should fall on those who caused them to do so, instead of the children