How can it be?

How can it be that there are still 300,000 child soldiers in the world today? How can it be that this is still an issue, even though it has been exposed through books, movies and songs, among other media? How can it be that it is not yet stopped? Throughout reading Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, and seeing Blood Diamond, I can not help but continuously wonder how such atrocities could be committed against men and especially children for so long without being stopped. Both the rebels and the government employed children as soldiers to help their cause. Not only did children have to witness war and brutal killing, but often they had to become a part of it. Children as young as 10 had to learn how to kill people, sometimes even their own families! I cannot understand it! The rebels and government used similar strategies in first capturing the children, then gaining their trust, and finally manipulating them into situations where they feel they need to help their cause and kill the enemy. I think this is absolutely horrible, and although it is difficult to stop insurgent rebels from using child soldiers, I strongly believe that it should be illegal for children to fight in wars. Since a person technically becomes an adult at age 18, I think that 18 should be the age that someone is old enough to fight in wars. I think that by this age, most people are mature enough to understand the situations around them and what they would be fighting for. But, basically, the use of child soldiers needs to stop. It has serious consequences for the rest of these children's lives. These children become scarred for life and have to go through serious therapy to be normal again. We saw in the film Blood Diamond, that Solomon's son had been brainwashed into almost killing his own father. It is very difficult to stop the use of child soldiers since the areas of conflict of which they are in use are usually very remote. Yet I believe that it can and should be done. It will take brave and committed people. I think the UN has tried to help with this, but I feel that they need to press harder and I feel that international peacekeeping organizations like the UN and non-profit organizations need to set laws against the use and move into areas of conflict and try to stop it by regulating foreign governments and assisting these governments in law regulation and enforcement. Hopefully, someday the issue of child soldiers will be stopped. We in the U.S. often feel so sheltered from these types of situations and so helpless in being able to help them. Sometimes all we can do is rant about them and simply wonder, 'How can it be?'