by George Ivanov

Created on: January 16, 2008

Scarred, but alive. They survived, but they killed. Ruthlessly.

Seeing that child in the picture, holding a Kalashnikov, and staring at you with a murderous, defying gaze. You involuntarily shake at the thought of that child, firing the semi-automatic at another innocent being; not knowing, understanding or questioning, that child will just empty the bullets into another woman, man or child.

The child mind is malleable, inexperienced, and open to influences. This is what insurgents in Africa, and regimes elsewhere in the world know, when they recruit children into their armed forces' ranks.
Tell a child that you are fighting for the right cause, and that so-and-so must be killed, because of this reason; that child will believe you with unwavering loyalty, because they do not know better.

Most child solders spend years in the ranks, prematurely hardening their perspective of the world, and what their role in it is. For many of them, it amounts to that they are alone, self-reliant, and they must kill to survive. Everyone else is an enemy in their sight. Their families have been likely tortured and killed in front of their own eyes. There is nothing to live for, or to return to. The solitary life of a rebel, without a cause, direction or end result; they just fight for the sake of it. Child soldiers are disillusioned, and they do not even know it.

Show them images of dead bodies, spread out on the ground, with fighters walking amongst them, checking for survivors. If anyone displays signs of life, they are quickly dispatched. The sobs of raped women, injured and dying, kneeling and lying among the smoldering remains of their homes and villages. The child, carrying the Kalashnikov, will probably smile, entranced by the spoils and horrors of easy victory. They are taught that there is no good or evil, but that there is only power, and those who can utilize it, survive. That feeling and knowledge, of being powerful and self-reliant, is what drives child soldiers, turns their hearts to stone, and makes them indifferent to the sufferings of their victims.

The World, as a whole, does bear immense responsibility in the effort to sway the rigid mind set of child soldiers, once the conflict comes to a conclusion. The damage, caused by the experience of war, makes former child soldiers much less open and accepting of other ideas,such as peace, prosperity, and cooperation. Much of the response to intra-national conflict response of the West is to send its own military forces to

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