Child Soldiers

Baby brigades, little bees, small boys units…the names may change, but the reality doesn't. More than a quarter of a million children around the world are fighting adults' wars, serving in rebel militias, national armies, and paramilitary groups.  At The Hague this week, where the trial began for the former president of Liberia, one of charges facing Charles Taylor is solicitation of child soldiers. Why does the US give military aid to countries that use child soldiers? What impact will recent trials have on punishing children in arms or the adults who recruit them? What price do the children pay?  What kind of rehabilitation is possible for children who have killed?