Children at War

[Chaigidel]

is it morally acceptable to train children to be soldiers as young as 8


this occurs regularly all over the world, especially among guerilla movements because children are the most impressionable and you can shape them into killers quite easily---

is it acceptable in a war to turn your children into weapons?

[removeduser_487563287433]

No. It is exploitation of children of the rank of child labour and prostitution.

[Chaigidel]

but in a war where perhaps your peoples survival was at stake? would it be ok then to train your children to kill the enemy ?

is there ever a time during a war when ethics simply no longer applies?

[removeduser_487563287433]

Life is not Lord of the Rings. That does not happen.

[Chaigidel]

the palestinians think that is the situation, as do many iraqi citizens, as do many afghani citizens--- I dont see how you can deny the fact that this is taking place with that very reasoning, this is not a made up situation; children fight and die all the time in war because people somehow find the reasons to make it justifiable.

also africa where atrocity to horrible to mention took place upon the children of various nations caught up in someones reasons for war--- this is not make believe .

[LoZz]

well it depends

in the western world we have cadet forces run by the military for children as young as 7/8, they do loads of team building stuff but they learn other stuff like how to shoot a rifle and radio communications and survival techniques.

you can join and start training for the army from as young as 16, still a child.

the only diffrence is they send them to fight, we wait to they are legally adult.

but then again is being a legal adult the same as a real adult? would anyone here who is married, with kids and in the mid 20's or older realy consider a 18year old still in education living at home an "adult". but we send people that young to fight and die.

its never right, everyside sends people way to young to die

[removeduser_487563287433]

I was referring to your justification of losing your entire people - not the fact that child soldiers exist. It is far, far, far more common in Africa - I have never heard of child fighters in Palestine, or in Afghanistan.

[Curtana]

Sending children to fight is morally wrong.

What is the cut off point between adult and child? Is a 17 year old soldier too young to fight in Iraq? (In the UK army the answer is officially yes btw.) In western societies people are staying more immature for longer. Sadly this includes emotional immaturity. My grandfather joined the working week age 12. I was almost twice his age. If we decide that young people aren't mature enough to analyse the risks properly then we'll have too few soldiers as more older men have lives they really want to keep. The answer to this problem is not obvious, I feel.

[Chaigidel]

well it also occured in vietnam, and in vietnam they did feel they were fighting for the survival of the people ( the communists and the south viet thought this)---- in afghanistan children fight along side the men ever since the soviet invasion

in palestine they openly teach the children to pray for martyrdom, encourage them to learn about the use of weaponry and the children always take part in the often deadly habit of stone throwing (deadly for the children). these children are taught to carry on the resistance and to fight the zionists wherever they can because they feel that they are fighting for the survival of the entire people.

[removeduser_487563287433]

All you give is two examples of propaganda being used on the vulnrable which underlines how evil it is to use children as soldiers.

[Chaigidel]

I completely agree that it is evil ferrets I was just responding to your comparison of lord of the rings to the situation many peoples find themselves in, to them it is survival, otherwise why would men with love in their hearts like any other human decide to send children into the lands of destruction.

because they feel that the entire people are at risk(not in all cases but the palestinians more than likely feel this way, as do afghan pashtun natives who feel encroached upon by both the taliban and western governments.

does anyone have a link to an article about those two 14 year old twins who lead a rebellion in a country in se asia?

[removeduser_487563287433]

No, it's because they're evil shites that should be ripped inside out with hooks in the anus. In Sierra Leon child soldiers were employed and controled with hard drugs and then encouraged in their frenzy to amputate limbs from captured civilians or soldiers.

[Chaigidel]

yes the liberia/sierra leon situations both had this sort of thing as does alot of the situation in africa--- notice I didnt mention africa as a place where people feel they are fighting for survival(well they are now in alot of cases but not the drug-crazed mutilation gangs)

Im not sure what kind of madness came together to create what has happened in africa.

[removeduser_487563287433]

They do not believe they are fighting for survival it is simple civil war between power hungry warmongers.

[killerchinchilla]

I think it could be acceptable in certain circumstances. The Soviet Union used child soldiers, or fighters might be more accurate, during the defense of the homeland. That was most definitely a case of fighting for survival. There is also the case of the Hitler Youth, though we may detest the Nazi state when they were used it was in defense of there home again in what they must have felt would be a battle for survival. Unfortunately it won't be until soldiers stop murdering none combatants that children can be relatively safe and shouldn't then be a need for them to fight.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Stalin and Hitler, role models for child soldiers. Rest my case.

[killerchinchilla]

Stalin and Hitler, role models for child soldiers. Rest my case.

Both counties where fighting a brutal war unlike in western Europe where for instance the French weren't being rounded up, murdered and raped in the same way as say Russia. I'm sure the resistance groups of WW2 used children and that the Chinese again fighting against a barbaric Japanese Empire would have had child soldiers.

[removeduser_487563287433]

None of which makes it any less evil, nor was either side in an ultimate fight for survival.

[Curtana]

nor was either side in an ultimate fight for survival.

That is fundamentally untrue.

[removeduser_487563287433]

How. Neither side saught to kill every member of each other.