Kids in Combat

"Caution: Children at War" by P. W. Singer, in Parameters (Winter 2001–02), 122 Forbes Ave., Carlisle, Pa. 17013–5238.

Armies and guerilla forces around the world have discovered a potent new weapon in the past few decades: children. The U.S. military will soon have to come to grips with the challenge.

According to Singer, an Olin fellow at the Brookings Institution, children under the age of 18 are fighting in more than 75 percent of the world’s armed conflicts. Africa is the epicenter. In Sierra Leone alone, up to 20,000 children currently bear arms; "roughly 80 percent of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) organization is aged seven to 14," Singer reports. In Uganda, the antigovernment Lord’s Resistance Army is composed almost entirely of children, including some 12,000 who were abducted over a 10-year period (and at least one five-year-old). Child soldiers—abductees and volunteers alike—have also fought in Palestine, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Kosovo, Guatemala, Mexico, and many other places. In Colombia, kids comprise roughly 30 percent of some guerilla units. In Myanmar, 12-year-old twins Luther and Johnny Htoo led the antigovernment God’s Army until their recent surrender.

The United Nations conservatively estimates that there are now 300,000 active child combatants worldwide, including an unknown number of girls. More than 50 states recruit children.

Singer cites two reasons for the rise of the child soldier. The vast numbers of children living in poverty provide an ample supply of recruits and candidates for forced service. And a worldwide glut of powerful small arms in the wake of the Cold War—perhaps 550 million—makes it easy to equip these children. In Uganda, an AK-47 costs no more than a chicken.

The use of children in war is not only a violation of international law in itself but tends to lead to more violations. "Experience has shown that [children] are among the most vicious combatants," Singer reports, in part because they are often brutalized as part of their training. Children also suffer greater casualties than adults. Commanders often use them as shields or cannon fodder in order to spare their more valuable adult fighters.

U.S. troops must be prepared to confront children, Singer warns. Six British soldiers were taken hostage in Sierra Leone in 2000 when they refused to fire on child soldiers. An obvious alternative is to target their adult leaders. Another tactic is to "fire for shock" rather than for "effect." That means "heavy use of smoke and demonstrative air, arms and artillery fire" in order to scare an enemy into flight or surrender. The sad irony, says Singer, is that the highly mobile, lightly armed forces that the United States increasingly relies on for far-flung missions "may be the most ill-equipped of all to respond."