The Changing Face of War Increasingly, war and conflict are marked by the numbers of civilian deaths. Schools that might otherwise occupy their time are destroyed or closes fields they might otherwise plant are off-limits because of fighting or mines relatives and neighbours are arbitrarily arrested, abused, or tortured. Often a gun is a meal-ticket and a better alternative to sitting at home afraid and helpless. Today, even small boys and girls can handle common weapons like assault rifles.
More children can be more useful in battle with less training than ever before.
But children are not always forced to become soldiers. The motivation lies in the very roots of conflict, in the social, economic and political issues defining children's lives. Confronting these larger concerns may be the only realistic road to preventing youth participation in otherwise unavoidable hostilities. Forced Recruitment In El Salvador through 1991 and even now in Guatemala, the armed forces fill their ranks, taking young men out of buses and cars, away from market-places or churches. Formal conscription processes, if they exist, are by-passed.