Dutch army, stop recruiting child soldiers

This is a video from the USA about military recruitment.

Translated from Dutch site NU.nl:

‘Department of Defence should stop its recruiting of child soldiers’

1 December 2009 10:34

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch Department of Defence should stop its ‘recruitment propaganda’ aimed at getting teenagers, including 11-year-olds, interested in the army.

Socialist Party member of parliament Remi Poppe advocates in an interview with NU.nl.

Poppe especially criticizes the site Oranjebaretten.nl, where, he says, teenagers are approached in a disgusting way by the Dutch Royal Army.

On that site, teenagers from eleven to sixteen years old are called upon to report for ‘important military operations and exciting missions‘.

“It is a shame that on that site Sergeant De Beer tells stories about excitement and sensation in the army. While, in reality, soldiers, after a mission, are often mentally damaged and may die as well”, Poppe says.

Propaganda

He wants the Department of Defence to stop its recruiting campaign aimed at youngsters, and to stop its ‘propagandist’ advertisements to get adults into the army as well.

“Those ads suggest that life in the navy or the army is one big adventure. …”

…

According to the SP member, about 10 percent of those soldiers has Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). “If one knows that every year, thousands of soldiers are sent overseas, this is about hundreds of soldiers who are hardly cared for“, Poppe says.

“They become alcoholics, they may even land in jail, or they may have divorce, unemployment, and other personal misery. Their families hardly recognize them.”

USA: The Psychological Implosion of Our Soldiers: here.

Related articles

• DR Congo Armed Groups Increase Child Recruitment (ipsnews.net)
• Soldiers who join up aged 16 ‘twice as likely to die in Afghanistan’ (express.co.uk)
• Young soldiers ‘more likely to die’ (standard.co.uk)