Misconceptions about Child Soliders

by Jeff Gimm
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4944&page=0

A recent article by Foreign Policy laid out several misconceptions that many in the West have about child soliders. Often overlooked in reports about Africa and the Middle East, one key misconception is that child soliders are a new phenomena, created by globalization. This, Foreign Policy tells us, is not true at all because during the 17th and 18th centuries there were children assisting on ships and in armies with hauling supplies and loading cannons. The other major misconception is that these "Child Soliders" are just that, soliders. It is in fact a misnomer, as these children are also messengers, spies and sex slaves.
While there has been increased awareness of the problem of child soliders in the past few years, there has not been nearly enough attention on why this is important besides the atrociousness of the notion of making children fight in wars. According to the article, many of today's top Taliban leaders got their start as childen fighting against the Soviets invading Afghanistan. If we do not learn the from the mistakes of the past 20 years, we may be fighting these children 15 years from now.