Children in War
Yesterday Terry Gross interviewed Peter Singer, a National Security Fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the role of children as combatants in wars. The interview was immensely interesting and disturbing.
A few quick notes: children serve as combatants in around 75% of armed conflicts in the world today. Improvements in weapons have made it possible for children to operate them who have not yet reached adult size or strength. Multiple reasons make the use of children as soldiers appealing: they don't have to be paid; they can be pulled into conflicts that adults may decline to fight (as in non-ideological wars); their minds are more malleable than adults'.
The price to the children is, of course, horrific: they are often used as cannon fodder, the expendable first wave which goes before the more "valuable" adults; they are also used as human mine detectors, clearing paths first, at the cost of their lives; they are frequently given drugs in order to make them more savage and to ensure their loyalty to the group which supplies the addictive drugs; they are branded and forced to take part in killings in their own village so that they will be permanently estranged from their former lives. And of course the cost to their psyches is unmeasurable.
Part of Singer's concern is to call for a wider recognition of, and preparation for, the realities of 21st century warfare. When most of us think of "war," we think of soldiers in uniform fighting for a national cause, which is increasingly an outdated image. Knowing that, Singer wants the U.S. military to better prepare for meeting children in armed conflict. We want, of course, to be good guys, handing out chocolate bars and playing with the kids. But since a bullet fired by a 12-year-old will leave one just as dead as one fired by a 20-year old, it is imperative that we train for actual conditions.
I encourage you to listen to the whole interview here: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4280681. Singer's new book is entitled Children at War.
Revision: I knew that Singer's name sounded familiar when I listened to the interview, but I couldn't place it. Now I remember that I thought he was nuts when I first came across his work in an ethics class. Be that as it may, the topic and the interview are still worth considering.
A few quick notes: children serve as combatants in around 75% of armed conflicts in the world today. Improvements in weapons have made it possible for children to operate them who have not yet reached adult size or strength. Multiple reasons make the use of children as soldiers appealing: they don't have to be paid; they can be pulled into conflicts that adults may decline to fight (as in non-ideological wars); their minds are more malleable than adults'.
The price to the children is, of course, horrific: they are often used as cannon fodder, the expendable first wave which goes before the more "valuable" adults; they are also used as human mine detectors, clearing paths first, at the cost of their lives; they are frequently given drugs in order to make them more savage and to ensure their loyalty to the group which supplies the addictive drugs; they are branded and forced to take part in killings in their own village so that they will be permanently estranged from their former lives. And of course the cost to their psyches is unmeasurable.
Part of Singer's concern is to call for a wider recognition of, and preparation for, the realities of 21st century warfare. When most of us think of "war," we think of soldiers in uniform fighting for a national cause, which is increasingly an outdated image. Knowing that, Singer wants the U.S. military to better prepare for meeting children in armed conflict. We want, of course, to be good guys, handing out chocolate bars and playing with the kids. But since a bullet fired by a 12-year-old will leave one just as dead as one fired by a 20-year old, it is imperative that we train for actual conditions.
I encourage you to listen to the whole interview here: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4280681. Singer's new book is entitled Children at War.
Revision: I knew that Singer's name sounded familiar when I listened to the interview, but I couldn't place it. Now I remember that I thought he was nuts when I first came across his work in an ethics class. Be that as it may, the topic and the interview are still worth considering.
posted by English Professor | 1:14 AM
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