"You think you tough now? Come to Africa."

I did my library exploration on child soldiers so I got most of my ranting and done when I sent that e-mail out. I guess, to take the least looked at route I could talk a little bit on how ingenious it is of the leaders. Most people, adults and teenagers, never want to go to war. It isn't like the old days where war was given a glamorous look and everyone thought they could improve or prove themselves through it. Ever since the 60's and Vietnam when images were splayed over the news every night of the horrors of war it has lost the romantic appeal. But not when you are a child, you still view it as full of heroes. Wars are where the heroes and the movie stars come from so why not be a part of it. Think back to your history lessons, who is talked about more, people who were around during wars or peacetime figures?

So you are a leader or potential leader of a nation so you can exploit for money, the adults won't fight for you because they know you will be just as corrupt as the last guy. You go out and get kids to do it. Their psyche is easily broken, they are young so will still feel dependent on an adult figure for guidance and necessities, plus the next year there will be more of them growing up, perfect, child soldiers it is!

Genius for the leaders to show the child soldiers action movies too. Ishmael Beah wrote that they saw Rambo so often that one time while raiding a village one of his friends acted like Rambo, he put a big knife in his teeth and snuck into the village trying to silently eliminate guards. It might sound sick and twisted but for a child to reenact a movie (especially one who has been brainwashed and possibly given drugs) it would pretty sweet. It is like you are your favorite character, a more extreme version of what happened this summer for the Sex in the City movie when girls flocked to NYC, bought cosmos and traipsed around Manhattan.

I always find it interesting that the child soldiers have power fetishes. This isn't anything that is new, Native American's did the ghost dance that they thought would make bullets go through them. At points though, it seems like charms of this nature, thinking you can be invincible, would be disproved. I cannot fully say that because they are younger children, or on drugs, or overtaken by the horrors of war that they convince themselves of these charms powers. More often than not groups that are underdogs look to fetishes to pump themselves up against the odds.