Child Soldiers in Iraq. (News Special: International).

Last summer, 14-year-old Mustafa Amir put aside his soccer ball and tennis racket for three weeks. Instead of playing his favorite sports, the Iraqi boy attended a military camp in a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq's capital. While there, he learned how to use a rifle and plan an attack.

"We are sharp swords in the hand of President Saddam Hussein, to be used to fight our enemies," Mustafa told The Associated Press while cleaning his AK-47 rifle. "I am looking forward to...[being] able to defend the country when it is attacked."

More than 150,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in the Persian Gulf. President George W. Bush may order them to force Saddam Hussein to disarm Iraq.

United Nations (UN) weapons inspectors have spent several months searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. President Bush believes that Hussein will never disarm on his own and that he poses a "grave danger" to the U.S. and the world.

"If war is forced upon us," the President said in his State of the Union address last month, "we will fight with the full force...of the United States military, and we will prevail."

U.S. soldiers in the Gulf may find themselves facing children as young as 10 on the battlefield. Up to 30,000 Iraqi boys are said to have trained at 30 camps across the country. Hussein's government established military camps for young boys in 1996, five years after Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf war.

Military analysts say that U.S. troops are not prepared to fight these children. In a recent report, Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution said that child soldiers can "operate with unexpected and terrifying audacity [boldness]."

Troops who encounter child soldiers, experts say, are usually unwilling to return fire. Those who do shoot often suffer severe psychological trauma. It is an impossible dilemma, says Charles Borchini, a retired U.S. Army colonel.

"These young kids may be 7 or 8, they may be 14," says Borchini, "but they can be just as deadly or more deadly than an adult with a weapon."

Child soldiers may be dangerous, but they are also vulnerable (capable of being hurt). Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch says that "the consequences for children [who go to war] are dramatic. For many children, especially those that are recruited at young ages, being exposed to warfare... really stunts or distorts their psychological and their moral development."

Defending Family and Country

Fifteen-year-old Sinan Abid Salman admitted that he was scared before going to a military camp last summer. Like all child soldiers in Iraq, he had little choice. Saddam Hussein denied food rations to families who refused to send their sons to the camps. But Sinan soon grew comfortable with the training.

"When I [got] acquainted with the people and the weapons the days started to pass fast," Sinan told The Associated Press. "It is a pleasure to be trained [and] to say that I am able to defend my family and country.

About 300,000 child soldiers are fighting in wars around the world. Experts estimate that 75 percent of all conflicts involve soldiers under the age of 18, some as young as 7. Technology has helped to increase the number of child soldiers. Weapons have become lighter and smaller, so they can be used easily by schoolchildren. And, since rifles and rockets are now cheaper to produce, armies can afford to buy enough weapons for child soldiers. Experts say that in some countries, a gun costs about as much as a textbook.

Children who undergo political indoctrination (teaching that may be biased) are considered more valuable than adults on the battlefield. They accept orders more readily and tend to believe whatever propaganda (ideas that further a cause) they are told.

Says Peter Singer: "The likelihood is that they might stick around on the battlefield longer, and indeed, even after it seems that ... defeat is at hand, they still might fight on."

However valuable child soldiers may be, they are often treated poorly and fed very little. In many countries, they are taken by force from their families.

Like Kids on a Playground

For all Iraqi children, the threat of war is serious. Many have suffered terribly under Saddam Hussein. UN sanctions, put in place after the Persian Gulf war, have also caused economic hardship. (See "Iraq's Lost Generation, "Nov. 29,2002)

No American soldier wants to harm these children. But what if a soldier encounters an armed child?

"When that 14-year-old points a weapon at you, what are you allowed to do and not to do?" one U.S. general asked The Christian Science Monitor. "This is about as tough an issue as we can deal with."

If American soldiers hesitate ( pause) on the battlefield, they can face real dangers. In 2001, a U.S. soldier was killed in Afghanistan by a bullet fired by a 14-year-old boy. In the past, U.S. troops have also encountered child soldiers in Germany, Vietnam, and Somalia.

Major Jim Gray, a British Marine who served in Sierra Leone, knows firsthand the dangers of fighting against child soldiers.

"[Somebody gives] them a weapon," he told U.S. troops, "and they behave as if they were on a playground, and it is terrifying."

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. audacity      A. teach
2. vulnerable    B. pause
3. indoctrinate  C. biased ideas
4. propaganda    D. boldness
5. hesitate      E. capable of being hurt

News Special word match

1. D

2. E

3. A

4. C

5. B