by Jesse Hamric

Created on: October 19, 2009

Ishmael Beah was only twelve years old when he was conscripted into the Sierra Leonean army. From that point on, he was put through horrors that no child should have to bear. While most children in far parts of the world were concerned with schoolwork, friends, and what they wanted for their birthdays, Ishmael was turned into a killer. The young child was forced to consume large amounts of drugs, then fight in combat. He suffered this for months until being rescued by UNICEF

Ishmael's story, while so sad, is shared by as many as 250,000 children around the world who are actively fighting in combat today, and hundreds of thousands more who are in the armed forces ready to be called up at any time. These young children are forced to take up arms and fight for their country, some as young as age ten.

The impact of this on the children involved is extreme. An obvious consequence is death and injury. It is hard to estimate the amount of children killed or hurt in combat, but even a single child dying after being forced to fight in a war is a violation of basic human rights. Many of these children are forced to deal with horrible conditions which often lead to disease. Besides the physical impacts, the psychological ones can be quite severe. Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most prominent disorders that linger in child soldiers even after being rescued. Ishmael Beah in his own book tells of dreams he used to have, in which he would be shot in the head. He states he would wake up screaming, and then be given drugs by the older soldiers to calm him down. Adjustment disorders are also very prominent. Many children lead their entire life in combat, so it becomes hard to adjust. Unfortunately to these children, combat and killing are all they know. Many other psychological disorders ranging from depression to eating disorders are more often then not present, showing that this is a real problem.

The problem of abused children in the military is one that is the entire world's responsibility to correct. The first and obviously most important job of the international community is to take these child troops out of combat. More funding should be given to programs such as UNICEF that rescue these children, and nations that allow child soldiers should be punished. We as a human race should not turn a blind eye to this kind of inhumane treatment.

The second, and often equally difficult part of our responsibility is bringing the children back into the real world. In

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