• jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    2 months ago

    No child, happy or otherwise, legally becomes a soldier.

    https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/six-grave-violations/child-soldiers/

    “Human rights law declares 18 as the minimum legal age for recruitment and use of children in hostilities. Recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law – treaty and custom – and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. Parties to conflict that recruit and use children are listed by the Secretary-General in the annexes of his annual report on children and armed conflict.”

    • Sundial@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You’re not saying anything wrong. You’ll get no argument from me if you say child soldiers are bad.You’re just sidestepping my point. Which is that the existence of child soldiers is due to the inhumane conditions foreign powers like the US have created in that part of the world.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        2 months ago

        No, the existence of child soldiers is due to illegal indoctrination and recruitment efforts. That’s the entire purpose of thoe Jihadi “schools” run by the Houthi.

        https://www.memri.org/reports/houthi-summer-camps-children-teach-jihad-sake-allah-hatred-west

        https://sanaacenter.org/ypf/curriculum-changes-to-mold-the-jihadis-of-tomorrow/

        Kids aren’t signing up for this, they’re bullied and brainwashed into it, and any legitimate military force would reject them.

        • Sundial@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          The Houthis, and their hatred of the US, didn’t come from nowhere. They were part of a repressed minority by the President of Yemen at the time, who was sympathetic to the US. The group began to really take shape after their leader they are named after was assassinated for protesting. This led to the Yemeni revolution in 2012 and the civil war as well. And Saudi Arabia is attacking them with the blessing from the US and their weapons simply because their politics don’t align with them. It’s a startling parallel for why Iran also hates the US, and so many other developing nations. Yes, child soldiers and indoctrination is bad. And I’ll agree with that until I’m blue in the face. This is a cycle of violence perpetuated by nations that have more than enough on nations that have barely anything simply because they want to. And it’s been going on for decades.