My Voice

Notes from Conrad Mandsager

Huma Tuma, an Ethiopian writer and political activist, recently wrote, “… young boys and girls should take part in wars, especially in those wars that can possibly render their lives better. In other words, if they are old enough to die they should be considered old enough to kill.” What an incredibly callous, even ridiculous statement - especially from an African who lives in a region where children are being exploited in this way.

When we think of children being used as armed combatants, we often see it as a relatively new phenomenon practiced only in the developing world. Yet it has a long history and a surprising basis in the West going back centuries. Children have been used as combatants in just about every major war - on both sides, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and II, Vietnam, and now in today’s conflicts.

The international community struggled to reach consensus that it is wrong for someone under the age of eighteen to be engaged as an armed combatant. Finally, after years of debate, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a treaty prohibiting the military recruitment and use in hostilities of any person younger than eighteen years of age and the recognition and enforcement of this standard by all armed forces and armed groups, both governmental and non-governmental. While this was a huge win for children everywhere, many rebel groups around the world are not interested in changing their practices out of respect for human rights.

Brain researchers have found physiological reasons we should be concerned about youth involved in combat. The frontal lobe of the brain - the part that controls impulses and is involved in cognitive functioning, reasoning, and decision making - is the last part of the brain to develop and, according to Jay Giedd of the National Institutes of Health, “doesn’t reach adult dimensions until the early 20’s”. Dr. Deborah Yurgelun-Todd of Harvard Medical School has concluded that youth often rely on emotional parts of the brain, rather than the frontal lobe. She noted that, “one of the things that teenagers seem to do is to respond more strongly with gut response than they do with evaluating the consequences of what they’re doing.”

The hormonal changes in adolescents add another dimension to this picture. Testosterone has been found to be closely aligned with aggression, and it is increased tenfold in teenage boys.

In another research study, the American Academy of Pediatrics has shown that abusive childhood experiences can trigger violent behavior in adolescents, including being witness to domestic violence or substance abuse within the family, being poorly or inappropriately supervised, and being the victim of physical or sexual assault (American Society of Pediatrics, Policy Statement, 1 Pediatrics, 103, 1999).

This body of research gives some insight as to why warmongers have found children to be so effective as armed combatants. While they probably do not understand the physiological reasons, their own “field research” proves that children are easily brainwashed and can be made into brutal killers with a small amount of training and motivation.

With all this history and background, why are we so alarmed now? Is it because we know that there are at least 300,000 children fighting as child soldiers today? Is it because weapons have evolved to become smaller and lighter and thus more easily handled by a child? Or is it because the subject is more visible today with the stream of images presented by 24/7 news coverage?

Maybe, as we learn more and more about the workings of the mind and body, we’ve come to the realization that nurturing during key periods of childhood and adolescence shapes people into the adults that will drive our future. It could be that this transparent exploitation of children as tools or weapons does not reconcile with our deep belief that life - particularly young life, so steeped with potential -- has intrinsic value. Or perhaps it is simply the feeling we get when we see a photo of a child carrying an AK-47 - that creeping unsettling sensation that turns our stomachs.

These are the reasons we act. More than anything, though, it is our conscience that propels us to stamp out this injustice, this callousness. Huma Tuma is wrong. There is no such thing as a child “old enough to kill”.