Mattie Massey

T. Davis
Honors Comp II
28 April 2015
Children of War
For hundreds of years all over the world there has been war and conflict. In these wars
many young souls have been lost along the way. Children that are either dreaming of adventure
and glory or children fleeing from their homeland in search of a safe haven. Survivors are left to
live with the memories of witnessing their entire families being wiped out as if they never
existed. The question remains, why did these children have to endure such tragedies and what
can the world do to protect future generations?
The journey begins during the Civil War. Tens of thousands of young boys, all under the
age of eighteen eager to join the war and fight along with their fathers and brothers. These young
boys were not forced into war, so many of them lied about their age to be able join the military.
There were some policies against children being allowed to fight, but they were not strictly
enforced. Now these children realize that what they had ran so hard to be a part of would become
a horrific nightmare some would never live to tell about. As told by one young boy named Elisha
Stockwell Jr., I want to say, as we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts
went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away and get into such a
mess as I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me. Another
young boy, Clem was a nine years old, he left his family to join the war. According to the New
York Times article on Boys of War,Clem became famous for shooting an officer. He was also
captured by the Confederates and rewarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Clem was a

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fortunate survivor, living to be eighty-five years old. Others were not so lucky; captured,
tortured, dying in battles, or contracting diseases that took the lives of many grown men as well.
This war was just one of many to take the lives of so many children.
Many years later in the midst of the Vietnam War, in the middle of a village called Chon
Thanh, children have just witnessed a bomb blast that killed eight American servicemen. One of
those servicemen had a brother, Larry. After seeing many photographs of the village and its
inhabitants, Larry became curious as to what had happened to the children of that village. With
the help of friends he returned to find the children. He managed to find sixteen of the children,
including Sa and The, a young girl and a young boy who survived the war. According to the
article written in the Guardian, Sa told her story of the Americans taking care of her and giving
her food and allowing her to go to school. She was happy until the day a bomb blast sent
shrapnel into her leg, leaving her disabled for life. The had spent the majority of his years
farming since surviving the war. He and many of the other children had lived off scraps of food,
or spent days being chased from their villages. Even after the war, these children are forced to
work in fields and live in very overcrowded refugee camps. No chance of a real education, only
living in fear and memories of war.
Several years hence forward again and we find ourselves in the Middle East. Fighting in a
war that has lasted over fourteen years now. Iraq/Afghanistan, not a place for any child to be.
The Taliban are recruiting these young children to do their dirty work. Suicide bombers, small
frail children with bombs strapped to their chest, sent out into a city street where soldiers are
walking a patrol. A life lost at an instant. For the children who survive, they are left to live in
towns that are no turned to nothing more than rubble. Or children may become a refugees, trying
to escape their homeland for something better. Correspondent Anderson Cooper tells the story of

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a fifteen year old boy named Ali, who along with thousands of others are trying find a better life
for themselves. Ali made it to Sweden and is now getting an education along with a safe place to
live, but many others just like him did not make it. They were being smuggled in trucks, dying
along the way. If, on the way, any child dies, we wont notify their parents for one or two
months. Then after time has passed, the pain will not be great, as explained by a smuggler to
Anderson Cooper. Maybe dying is better than being kidnapped and turned into a sex slave, or
maybe one day just disappearing completely. No story to tell. Even if a young boy makes if to a
new country, it is not always safe either, many are beaten and abused there as well. Is this new
place any better than the one they tried so hard to escape from? Still yet, the survivors are left
with memories, nightmares, and scars of war.
I bring you to today, the wars are still going on all over the world, and probably will
continue until I am no longer around to talk about them. We are also fighting our own wars back
on American soil. Children in America are about six times more likely to get killed by a gun than
a soldier in Iraq. According to Isaac Riddle of Next City, for young people living in high crime
neighborhoods, the rate of exposure to violence is that comparable to that of soldiers in war
zone. Somewhere in America there is an inner city suburb, this small community is languished
in poverty. Education is lacking, as well as opportunity for jobs and economic growth. So in
steps a local gang, looking to recruit whoever they can to help run their drugs, guns, and commit
whatever crimes they see fit. Young children six and seven years old being sent out into the street
to sell drugs. Maybe if they are lucky enough this new family they have found will at least keep
them fed and clothed. Unlike the home they were living in, with a parent who was addicted to
drugs themselves. A parent who would make money by selling their own child for sexual favors,
just to get their next high. Scarring this young child for life, and making them think that sexual

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violence against children is okay, turning prey into predators. The new family has also taught this
child to hate others, people of their own race as well other races. Teaching children that you
dont have to work for what you want. Children are stealing, robbing and even killing just for
material things. Our own country needs to wake up before it is too late, before we have lost the
war on our streets and more of our children die, or end up in prison for committing such heinous
crimes. Only to return to the streets more scarred and troubled, but more educated on how to be a
better criminal.
For centuries our children have fought, but the wounds of those battles will forever remain.
Children are now to found to be suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Most
people only think of PTSD when they hear about a soldier returning home from war. It is a
reality for any child who has faced the trauma of watching their family be executed, their home
being blown up, and living in poverty, being forced into a sex slave trade or the drug trade as
well. According to Isaac Riddle a journalist for Next City, as many as one third of children
living in our countrys violent urban neighborhoods have PTSD, nearly twice the rate reported
from war zones in Iraq. The mental health of our youth is suffering greatly from living in
violent areas all across America and abroad.
Why have we allowed our youth to fall victim to such tragedies? Wars will continue as
they have for centuries before us. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on protecting the
children from all the conflict that surrounds them and getting the proper care to treat the effects
of trauma already suffered. These children are the future of the world we live in. Give them the
opportunity to live in a world without regret, without fear, instead give them the opportunity to
live.

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