The issue we are forming these morals around is: child soldiers. This argument concerns each of us, because we live in this world and we need to shape it; otherwise, it gets shaped for us.
The question we are grappling with is:
Should child soldiers be given amnesty?
This issue is currently debated in The United Nations, Amnesty International, and the US military. This argument requires you to think:
Should child soldiers be considered victims or perpetrators?
As we know from our previous work with argument, it is important that we withhold our gut reactions, and examine both sides of an issue before taking a position, a claim, for ourselves.
Here are both sides of this issue for you to consider:
- Child soldiers are victims.
- This position states that child soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions. These children should not be punished for the crimes they commit.
- Child soldiers are perpetrators.
- This position states that child soldiers should be held responsible for their actions, and should be punished for the crimes they commit.
What do YOU think?
Submit a comment. Your comment might:
- state your position (and why)
- ask a question
- reply to another comment
- share a link to important information on this issue
What I think is that they should and should not be given amnesty because if someone tells them to fight and if they pick to fight on they own then that could make them keep on wanting to fight
ReplyDeletechild sodlers should not be working and killing outher peaple they dont know what taking a persons life means that person may not be inportant to them but it is inportant to the other persons family they need to wait till they get older to join the army so there minds can mature and relize what there doing. do u think that?
ReplyDeleteBut, some of these children are forced to fight. In the article "Children of war Liberia try to pick up pieces" it says that the Liberian government ran out of adults to fight, so took kids from their families and made them train. Those kids don't have the choice to wait until they are older.
Deletei think that they should be given amnesty depending on the situation they are in, if they like killing people and they dont really care and they take drugs to forget what they do i think they shouldnt be given amnesty but if they dont want to kill people and they are just trying to save their life and they dint take drugs to forget the things they do then i think they should be given amnesty
ReplyDeleteWhat if they "like" killing people because they have been brainwashed? In the article "Islamic State use of child soldiers on the increase, study says" (which just came out last week) it states that Isis is increasing it's use of children as suicide bombers. It also suggests that these kids aren't a "last resort" because they ran out of men to fight -- these kids are choosing to do so. But, for a child to choose to do this, wouldn't he or she have to be persuaded somehow? Is it really their fault even if they "choose" to fight?
DeleteThey should not ever be given amnesty. There is always a choice, even if it's sacrificing their life to save dozens or hundreds of other's lives. That is a noble decision. If they escape or run for help from alternate sources, then they'll get better help, and they won't kill. It's an immoral decision to take another's life. They should never be making that choice, as there are always better alternatives than killing other families, no matter the reasoning behind their actions. -Noah
ReplyDeleteSo, at what point is a human's brain capable of making this moral choice? And, whose to say that our morals are correct? Our military goes into other countries and kills people, yet they return home and aren't charged with murder. Even civilians are sometimes killed, and yet we don't see our military men and women as needing amnesty.
DeleteSo far, I think it depends on the child. If the child truly wants to change, and they honestly don't want to continue carrying out violent, dangerous actions, they should be allowed to 'start over' after a certain number of therapy/counseling sessions.
ReplyDeleteThey don't deserve it at all. Its a good idea that they should get a chance to 'start over' but you would leave them hanging a little bit. Its like they get help and then make a choice to go back into violence or start over. They would probably dont know how to start over and choose going back into the war. If they go back into the war (which they're used to being in) they would just get amnesty? So what if they go back. That's what they learned in their childhood. whats what they're used to.
DeleteThat doesn't mean they shouldn't have a chance. Why would they ever want to go back into the war anyway? I was reading an article about child soldiers and it said: "Another who escaped from their clutches is 11-year-old Nouri, who was abducted with his family and taken to the ISIS camp in Tel Aafar, northern Iraq. When he refused to join the other boys for training, ISIS fighters broke his leg in three places.
DeleteHe's one of the lucky ones though: when his leg healed, he could only limp. ISIS deemed him "useless," but rather then shoot him they allowed his grandmother to come and carry him home.
His 5-year-old brother Saman was also released. Repeated beatings at the hands of ISIS fighters have utterly traumatized him.
He wakes up screaming in the night and suffers from seizures. As CNN speaks to his grandparents he jumps and asks first one, then the other: "Are you going to beat me?"" If just the memory of being a child soldier is doing this to Saman, why would anyone ever want to go back? Just because they might be used to the war, it doesn't mean they LIKE the war, or it's cause. They're (in most cases) innocent, just like U.S. soldiers. They go out and kill people, and no one raises an eyebrow. child soldiers are doing (in a way) the same thing U.S. soldiers are doing, except the child soldiers are very young and normally didn't want to join the army.
A child soldier is any person under the age of 12 who has been recruited by an armed force or group to participate in an armed conflict should not be given amnesty. Its not their fault that their parents have a bad influence on them. They do not know from right to wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn "Armed & Underage" The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (a group trying to stop anyone from using child soldiers) defines a child soldier as "anyone under the age of 18". So, when exactly IS a soldier considered a child?
DeleteMost child soldiers are forced into fight by there country's government and it is there only way to survive. They are usually given alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs so it takes away there feeling of fear. So most of the time they don't even know what there doing and they are doing this to protect their family if they are not already dead and to protect there country. And we have are military go into other places to protect us and they come back and we don't think twice but when they do it it causes problems.
ReplyDeleteEmma what do you mean about our military? What don't we think twice about?
DeleteI think it depends on how they joined. If they are forced into the military then it's not their fault, but if they were in the military because they wanted revenge for something then they don't because they made that choice.
ReplyDeleteI agree Lillie they do deserve amnesty, Why the article debate wise says that, "Child soiliddures are not responsible for there actions. These children are often being forced into fighting and have little choice over weather or not they are enlists." Says debate wise
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to remember that soldiers (including child soldiers) are not in trouble for committing crimes that relate to war -- like murder. What we have to keep in mind are the crimes that ARE war crimes -- these are the kinds of things child soldiers are punished (or not punished) for.
DeleteI think child soldiers should be given amnesty depending on how they got there. Most children are forced into committing crimes we would never even think about. The children are given drugs and alcohol to be distracted from crimes and they have no sense of what they are doing. Other children might have had no other option. Their families sold their children for money for food and necessities of life, or kids had to go into the armies because they need food and safety.
ReplyDeleteI think child soldiers should be given amnesty but put into rehabilitation. Because most kids don't have a choice and because they're so young they don't know what they're doing and are easily told what to do by their commanders. If they know what they did was wrong we shouldn't punish them but most kids don't know that it's wrong because they grew up in war so they should definitely be given amnesty.
ReplyDelete