Child Soldiers/Quotes

I consider their existence our greatest failure.

—UN Secetary, Kofi Annan, On Child Soldiers.

Think you gangsta, popped a few rounds?

These kids'll come through and murder a whole town

Then sit back and smoke and watch it burn down

The graves get deeper the further we go down

—Lupe Fiasco, "Little Weapon"

Nothing is scarier than a 12-year-old with a Kalashnikov.

—Nightcrawler, X-Men

Or maybe it was because of something that impressed me in Carton's Army of the Potomac: that the soldiers were all so young and innocent... Even though it was a deadly game, and the suffering and fear were terrible and real, it was still a game played by children...

—Orson Scott Card, explaining why Ender's Game is about children

Andre: I can see what you are thinking. But we need every man we can get.

Yuri: Even if they're not men?

Andre: A bullet from a fourteen-year-old is just as effective as one from a forty-year-old. Often more effective.

—Andre Baptise and Yuri Orlov, reviewing several dozen Liberian children standing formation armed with AK-47s and bazookas in Lord of War

I can't hold a glass of wine yet

But they think it's fine to

Have me hold a gun

Kill a man or kill his son

We too shall enlist

When our elders' time has come

To add to the list of deeds

Inscribed upon their tombs

We are much less jealous of surviving them

Than of sharing their coffins

We shall have the sublime pride

Of avenging or joining them

To arms, oh citizens!

Form up in serried ranks!

March on, march on!

And drench our fields

With their tainted blood!

On Shiloh's dark and bloody ground,

The dead and wounded lay;

Amongst them was a drummer boy

, Who beat the drum that day.

A wounded soldier help and him up--

His drum was by his side;

He clasp'd his hands, then he rais'd his eyes,

And prayed before he died

Drummer Boy of Shiloh

Shepard: You've been killing since you were six?

Thane: Of course not. I did not make my first kill until I was twelve.

—Mass Effect 2