Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

¶ … Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Specifically it will discuss what, if anything should be done to prevent the participation of youth in international wars? The author was a boy soldier from the age of 12 in Sierra Leone. He talks about his experiences, and makes an excellent case for preventing youth's participation in such violence.

Beah's experiences are horrific, especially for such a young child. He writes, "The bullets could be seen sticking out just a little bit in the baby's body, and she was swelling" (Beah 26). No one should have to experience things like that, especially a 12-year-old. What is driving the fighting in Sierra Leone is the diamond mining, which the rebels want to control. This is at least partly the problem of the government of Sierra Leone, who allowed rival rebel gangs to take over the country and terrorize it for years. The government was weak and corrupt, and it let down the children who were conscripted, like Beah, to fight with the rebels. They had little choice. They had no homes, no families, and were threatened with death. A reviewer notes, "In Beah's wartime view, the rebels either destroyed your village or they're about to. It's not hard to understand Beah's decision to fight, though, as it wasn't much of a decision" (Dicker 7). Killing became their only choice, and Beah's experiences should never happen to a child of his age, or anyone, for that matter. The government could have done much more to help protect the people and repel the rebels, so they are at fault here, and they should take responsibility.

Another thing that could be done to prevent this is to regulate the diamond industry in some of the poorest countries in Africa, where corruption and fighting are rampant. The diamonds represent wealth and power, and so, many groups want to control them. Diamonds are a commodity that is high-priced and therefore valuable to many, and because they lack governmental or corporate control in many areas, they are up for grabs and open to corruption, smuggling, and thievery. All of these things occur in Sierra Leone, but it is the world demand for diamonds that fuels this activity. Today, many people are more aware of where the diamonds come from and the conditions they are mined and they refuse to buy these "blood diamonds." However, there are still unscrupulous people that do not know or care about where diamonds come from and how they are mined, and this perpetuates the conditions that lead to situations such as the author's. Educating consumers, and boycotting sales of diamonds from countries like Sierra Leone could help reverse situations such as the author faced, and making people more aware of the situation could help, too.

The media could have helped the situation, too. Here in the western world, the median offered almost no coverage of the civil war in Sierra Leone and the situation children were facing. They did not publicize it, and so, people did not care about what was happening. If the media had publicized the situation, more people would have gotten involved, and the situation might have been different. The local governments could not control the situation, and when danger threatened, the local soldiers often deserted their posts, leaving the villagers without any type of protection. The author writes, "The soldiers, who somehow anticipated the attack and knew they were outnumbered, left town before the rebels actually came" (Beah 41). Without any support, the people were gunned down and the children conscripted. Worldwide media attention to what was going on could have brought more support to the area and bolstered the local soldiers, keeping everyone safer and keeping children from falling into soldier's hands.

In addition, the soldier's should have gotten more governmental support, so they did not have to conscript children into the civil war. That should never have been condoned or allowed. The fact that they drugged the children should never have been allowed, either. The entire situation in the country was out of control, and turning away from these conditions only allowed them to flourish. Without any aid organizations to monitor the situation, there was chaos, and the children suffered the most. The situation was out of control, and soldiers took matters into their own hands. This was another fault of the government and the military combined. They looked the other way and ignored the situation, which only allowed it to grow. The soldiers effectively taught the children to hate and to become methodical killers, something that never should have been tolerated in an organized military unit, and those responsible for the military were responsible for this travesty.

Supposedly, the boys are fighting on the "right" side, but they are just as brutal as the rebels are, and the soldiers are directly responsible for that. Beah writes, "The rebel ran up and down the village before he fell to the ground and stopped moving. We cheered again, raising our guns in the air, shouting and whistling" (Beah 212). They have become killing machines, animals in their own right, and the soldiers allowed, even encouraged this to occur. It is a tragic situation, made more tragic by the fact that it happened at all. Here in America, it seems impossible that children could live this way, and we would never allow it. However, we turned our backs and did allow it, so in a way we are responsible, too. We should never overlook what is happening halfway around the world, even if it does not affect us, and we should never have allowed this situation to continue, we should have stepped in and done something about it.