Let Them Be Little

On the issue of child soldiers fighting in wars for their countries, I must say that no child should ever have to be forced to do such terrible things like those documented in Blood Diamond and A Long Way Gone. It is hard for me, a nineteen-year-old, American teenager in today’s society, to imagine what it would be like to go through what Ishmael Beah and numerous other child soldiers went/go through. Honestly, I feel like there is no set age in which an individual knows or fully understands what they are fighting for. Is it safe to say that one is fighting for one’s freedom or is it a possibility that one is actually fighting for another individual’s personal gain?
Upon further reading of A Long Way Gone, I realize that the consequences of children fighting in a war where guerilla tactics seem to be the only military strategies used by the fighters on each side of the war are ones that are not easily dismissed from their minds later in life. The effects of the war on these children include nightmares, migraines, night sweats, and very intense flashbacks. Oftentimes, these health issues are hard for adults to take, let alone eight-year-old children.
Overall, I believe that there are no possible solutions to this problem. We face just as many problems in the U.S. today as we do around the world. Just because something is categorized as illegal in our country, does not mean that people quit doing. I think that it is way too hard for someone to regulate such a very widespread problem.