Is there such a thing as a boy soldier?
Many third-world countries still enrol, often by force, children, even girls,into their guerilla or terrorist forces to swell the ranks.Children in order to survive, easily influenced or threatened,pushed by fear, faith or fanaticism and sometimes little more than hunger or poverty have no option but to take up arms. A child, in reality, can become a soldier as soon as he is strong enough to lift a rifle or carry ammunition although in most cases poorly armed and without proper training they are little more than expendable cannon-fodder easily replaced. In developed countries boy-soldiers no longer exist in regular armed forces but in certain European countries young men can apply to join the army from the age of seventeen and a half.I stress the word “apply” as recruters will normally weed out candidates they find to be psychologically or physically inadequate,as in modern armies feeding, clothing and training young recrutes is costly and armies need men in good health with an accepta
