Sierra Leone, Congo/Zaire, Liberia and Cambodia are just a small sample of nations guilty for forced conscription of child soldiers in front-line conflicts. The Third World bears responsiblity because they used young boys to fight in their wars. They used young girls to sustain the armies and militias during these conflicts.

The Western world bore responsibility for ignoring this war crime. They decided that taking the natural resources and diamonds from this suspect nations were more important than reporting a human rights violation. Liberia's rebel leader and later president, Charles Taylor orchestrated murder, arson and rape in campaigns to enlist children to join his movement. His strongman, Corporal Sankoh (who later became Vice President) committed the same crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone. Both conflicts endured for almost twelve years each. Together, almost two million died from violence, imprisonment, murder and disease. Liberia's and Sierra Leone's infrastructures were ripped apart beyond repair. Generations of emotionally-scarred and physically-maimed ex-soldiers are living hand to mouth. Their victims are forced to coexist with these abused children who just recently murdered their loved ones. The West waited, until enough Africans were killed and the rest of the world cried in unison, to finally act.

The origin of using child soldiers might've come from Vietnam-era Cambodia. The Communist insurgents, Khmer Rouge, recruited children and trained them to fight on the front lines. After the 1975 collapse of Phnom Penh, Khmer Rogue-led youths brandished firearms and ordered the city's population into the streets. They robbed innocents at gunpoint. They shot some dead if they hesitated in submitting to their orders. These child soldiers spearheaded the "Killing Fields" genocide implemented by dictator Pol Pot. His rule of hard-line, agarian communism murdered thousands by torture and forced labor. Over two million Cambodians died between 1975-1979. The Vietnamese invasion and subjugation of the Khmer Rouge saved the remaining population from extinction.

Using child soldiers has been a dirty sin committed by Third World countries. These nations don't have the finances or the manpower to furnish an adult army. Here are some excuses to enlist children to fight.

1) Children are easy to control
2) Children are easy to please.
3) Children are euthasiastic to please their handlers.
4) Children are obedient.
5) Children are easy to manipulate.
6) Children won't be prosecuted for human rights violations.

Unfortunately, all of these truths are true. Child soldiers are former soldiers. They should be treated as such, regardless of the conflict they participated in. Child soldiers are in need of rehabilitation. Child soldiers are in need of an easy transition back into society. Child soldiers are in need of intense psychological and psychariatric therapy. The Western nations are responsible for flipping the bill for that. For once, the West should give to the Third World, instead of the usual practice of taking from it.

Learn more about this author, Marcus Brooks.
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