Around the world, there has been a question whether child soldiers should be considered victims or perpetrators. Child soldiers are through drugs and even false promises forced by military commanders things you can't even imagine. Things such as killing mass groups of civilians or even other children and their own families. They are brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol that the commanders forcefully give these children. In addition, the brainwashing then causes more children to commit things like mentioned before, killing innocent civilians and things much worse than that. In the last decade, more than two million children have been killed and more than six million children have been permanently disabled or have been seriously damaged.Even knowing all this there still arises the question of if child soldiers should be considered victims or perpetrators. Child soldiers are forcefully enlisted in the military and are treated with poor respect. A particularly compelling example of how the military is treating child soldiers is “Child soldiers are ideal, they don't complain they don't expect to be paid and if you tell them to kill they will kill” (Gettleman). What this makes clear is what the military commanders think when they recruit other children to fight in the military. Reflecting on this we see that how selfish military commanders are when they recruit child soldiers only for the purpose of saving money and not losing their valuable resources. Child soldiers are by the military used as human shields. “There are still over 200,000 kids today being used as combat”(Gettleman). They are used to protect commanders while these innocent children who have no say in this are killed. Many child soldiers often will try to save themselves and try to escape but more often than not they are prosecuted for not obeying or following commanders orders. Many child soldiers are brainwashed and then forced to do things for the purpose of the military. Many child soldiers are brainwashed by the drugs and alcohol they are forced to take. Specifically, “Children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol”(Invisible children). Most cruel crimes are done by child soldiers who can’t handle the pressure that the military caused them. I think child soldiers are still victims in this case because they still have no say in this as they were forced to join the military. Although some children choose to enlist in the military commanders still give these children drugs and false promises to brainwash them into doing what the military wants. The military does this so they can get the children to do what they want and need them to do with ease. Meaning they don't have to do anything like making them move or hearing their complaints. All they have left to do is to tell the children what to do and because they are brainwashed they will do it. Some people will still say that child soldiers are still responsible for all the crimes and actions they perform. “More often than not children have no say in whether they enlist or not”(invisible children). This is evidence reveals that most children that are recruited are not even given the choice to be enlisted or not, they just are. And the drugs and alcohol make these innocent children less and less mindful causing them to commit and do things they probably did not even know they were capable of doing. But really the children have no say about this point. And even after they are recruited they are forcefully being given these things that brainwash these children into doing whatever the military wants them to do. Although there are cases where some children choose to enlist in the military commanders still give these children drugs and false promises to brainwash them into doing what the military wants. And many children can't handle all this killing and brainwashing causing them to do something they would probably regret. So really the drugs and alcohol are controlling these actions on these children. And military commanders are just reinforcing this point. On the other side of the argument, there are strong points that are brought up. For example, many people believe that child soldiers are like child criminals. They commit the cruelest crimes and acts in wartime. Things that are brutal to mankind itself such as killing masses of innocent civilians and other much brutal crimes. Take Omar khadar for example. Omar claimed, “ The day he planted land mines to kill a U.S. soldier was the happiest day of his life”(Prasow). Many people would be willing to use Omar’s words here to say that child soldiers are in fact perpetrators. Another point that is made is how some child soldiers enlist in the military as an act of patriotism. With this statement, some people will argue that it is unethical to proclaim that child soldiers are forced into fighting because many of them chose to. Some people may argue that many children will join the military without forcibly recruited. This could mean that they wanted to be recruited and wanted to fight in the military, which should also be taken into consideration. Overall I believe that child soldiers are and should be considered victims. They should not be held responsible for their crimes considering that they commit these crimes with the pressure of being in the military. These innocent children are put under terrible circumstances from the drugs and alcohol and the brainwashing overall. They are then with the brainwashing told to kill, and some children can not handle the pressure of the commanders or the military telling them to kill. This cause many children to commit crimes they most likely would not do only because of the pressure of the military. So, in conclusion, I believe that child soldiers should be considered victims and not perpetrators.
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It’s the 1960’s and political correctness is nowhere near correct. People of color were treated discriminatorily. The people have little to no aspiration to have the subject resolved. That is, besides Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Speaking out against the discrimination, they aspire to discover the solution.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X have corresponding and opposing viewpoints. They both agree that people need to be treated equally. That African Americans are treated inequitably. However, they both take a disparate approach on the matter. The issue is they both want equality for every race, but wish to achieve the upshot in different procedures. The speeches “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. and “Address to a Meeting in New York, 1964” by Malcolm X indulge similar opinions. For example, they both included quotes in their speeches to epitomize indignation and imprisonment. “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of negro slaves who had been seared in the flames withering injustice”, a quote in which Martin Luther King Jr. detailed how African Americans were situated into the roles of poverty. “He makes the mistake of charging the one who awaken him with having set the fire”, Malcolm X attributes the fury that he had towards the topic. They both concur to the rage that happened to transpire with their position in society. Along with their similarities, they have opposing point too. Malcolm X conjectures that African Americans should do whatever they need to to get where they need to be. “He continued to criticize white institutions that hindered social equality and he argued that blacks should use any means necessary to gain justice”, Malcolm X dives straight to the focus of fighting for their rights, while Martin Luther King Jr. compels people to hope and be patient for their rights, as detailed in the quote, “In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred”. In conclusion the attitudes of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X expose their hatred for black and white segregation. Both desired freedom and were determined to achieve this goal. Malcolm X by any means wanted to get segregation extinguished forever. Martin Luther King counted on “hope” and “speech” to achieve this goal as well. The two believed and felt many things, things they wanted to fix or dissolve because they were speaking up for others without voices. Malcolm X stood for the civil rights movement which helped him get his rising conflicts to dissolve. Martin Luther King certainly thinks that many things need to stop, but he believed doing this in a more peaceful way, a peaceful transition. He was hoping others would speak up like he did. Oyinda shoots the basket but misses. The crowd roars in awws. The other side gets the rebound. Everyone is headed to the other side. Down the other side the other team is pounding the ball right down the middle exactly where Oyinda is defending. The other player is going to fast.
BANG! They both fall. The crowd gasps. The other player gets up, but Oyinda is still on the floor. Oyinda’s parents come to try and help her up. The coach is also right there helping her. The gym is dead quite. “ It hurts,” Oyinda says as everyone was crowded around her, helping her up. Oyinda had hurt her thigh. And from the looks of it, it was not looking good. Tears were filling up in her eyes and were now rolling down her cheek. She finally got up with some help. The crowd cheers and claps. They take her to the bench. Oyinda sits down. The gym is full of whispers. A tall lady comes up to Oyinda. “Now tell me what’s hurting”, the lady asked gently crouching down. Oyinda replies, “It’s my thigh, it really hurts...I think I might have broke something.” The lady just looked and examined her thigh. She asked Oyinda to do some different things with her leg. Like bending it, and walking on it. “ Just take it easy today and ice that leg, Ok”, the lady said.“Can someone get her some ice?” From the looks of it, things were not looking good for Oyinda’s injury. The game went on again, and the crowd was louder than ever. The next day Oyinda came in late. It turned out she went to the doctors and found out that she had dislocated her muscle one millimeter out of place. And she had to have crutches for two weeks. She also could not play for another six weeks after the recovery. She would not be able to play for the rest of the season. This meant that our team would have one less player on the team. Even though Oyinda would be sitting on the bench, her head would always be held high. With a smile on her face every time even knowing she would not be able to play. *** Two weeks had flown by and Oyinda was finally out of crutches. Even though she did not get to play the rest of the season which made her really sad, she got even stronger for the next season. The next season she was out on the court and ready to go before everyone else. Her leg got even stronger and was better than ever. As Oyinda said, “ Things happen for a reason, we just have to learn how to cope with it.” |
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