ARTICLE

December 2002

Child Soldiers: A Growing Threat to U.S. Troops?

by Sandra I. Erwin

In more than 30 wars being fought around the world today, at least 300,000 soldiers are under the age of 18. The budding presence of so-called “child soldiers” should be a concern for U.S. forces as they prepare for future conflicts, said experts.

Child soldiers can be just as effective and dangerous as adult fighters and, in some cases, they can pose an even greater threat than seasoned combatants, because they have grown up fighting wars and are more battle hardened.

These findings were the subject of a June 2002 seminar sponsored by the Marine Corps’ in-house think tank, called the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities. The CETO was created two years ago to help Marine Corps leaders prepare for future conflicts in new war-fighting environments.

Experts who participated in the seminar, titled “Child Soldiers: Implications for U.S. Forces,” concluded that the United States needs to prepare its military services to tackle issues such as the rules of engagement when troops encounter child fighters and to explore new tactics for combating them.

For U.S. military leaders, “the child soldier issue clearly is an emerging threat,” said Col. Frank A. Panter Jr., commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, which oversees CETO.

“There is little question that U.S. servicemen will encounter child soldiers sometime in the future,” said Panter. “Indeed, this topic is of increasing importance not only for policy makers but, most importantly, for U.S. service members.”

The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan offers a compelling case in point. In January 2002, U.S. Special Forces Sgt. Nathan Chapman is reported to have been killed by a 14-year-old Afghan boy. Although this was not confirmed by the Defense Department, the “incident was noteworthy,” said the CETO seminar report, published last month.

In September 2000, British special forces rescued a six-man patrol of the Royal Irish Regiment, who had been captured in Sierra Leone by a rogue militia made up almost entirely of children, according to Maj. Jim Gray, a Royal Marine staff officer who participated in the CETO seminar.

The report cited statistics by the United Nations, which estimated that 300,000 boys and girls under the age of 18 are fighting as soldiers, but also serving as spies, informants, couriers and sex-slaves in more than 30 conflicts going on today. Human Rights Watch said the biggest recruiter of child soldiers is Burma, with 70,000 in its ranks, 10-15 percent of whom are younger than 15 years old. African armies that heavily use children include those of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda.

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone, Ishmael Beah, told the CETO seminar that commanders often give kids addictive drugs to weaken their inhibitions. “You were always drugged, and you pretty much fought constantly,” said Beah. “And when you were not fighting, you were using drugs.”

The CETO report noted that advances in technology are among the “greatest enablers that facilitate the use of child soldiers.” Light arms, such as the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rifle, are light enough and relatively easy to handle. “There is no extensive or complicated training necessary to teach children how to fire an AK-47,” the report said.

U.S. forces, particularly, need to become more aware of the child-soldier phenomenon, said the report, because fighting against children can create moral dilemmas. “Battles that involve killing children often have a very demoralizing effect on professional combat forces from countries where children are protected and their rights are valued.”

Experts at the seminar suggested that U.S. forces consider developing unconventional tactics for engaging forces with child soldiers. Examples include: fighting at a distance and firing for shock, eliminate the recruitment zones, use non-lethal weapons and psychological operations to convince child soldiers to stop fighting.

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