originally posted in:Secular Sevens
Now you've got to wonder if the commanders, giving orders to these child soldiers, are also being forced to give such orders. How many people are being [i]forced [/i]to do such atrocious acts on humanity? does it go all the way up to the main leader?
*puts on tinfoil hat*
Or is some government giving the top leader the objectives? I mean the CIA has helped during the Iran coup. We've aided Osama and Sadaam also. We're now also willing to give weaponry to the Syrian rebels. You've got to wonder who really is the leader of these groups and what the trade off was for the weapons? Did we put an asterisk to the weapons deals we often make to these rebels?
English
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I think you inadvertently raise an important point here. While we should certainly take into account that these are acts that the soldiers are not being given a choice whether or not to commit, we also can't allow that to be a justification for absolving them of responsibility for those acts entirely. Acts committed by organized groups rely on the compliance of each individual member to succeed. If enough of those individuals resist, the group as a whole is weakened or even abolished. Therefore, each individual who complies with a regime that orders unethical courses of action shares some degree of accountability with all who do so. Not to mention, the "I was just following orders" excuse is far too easy for such people to pull out once they're caught.