The Child Soldier’s New Job
It is a well-known fact that private military companies are becoming significant players in conflicts around the world, supplying not merely the goods but also the services of war. This film reveals how private military companies hire the cheapest possible soldiers and labor. In armed conflicts, large parts of both the logistics and the actual combatants have been outsourced to private companies who want to maximize profit. As a result, cheap labor is hired from the poorest parts of the world – the gravest example of which is the employment of former child soldiers.
The US Department of Defense has engaged in a deal worth almost $300 million with the private military company Aegis (until recently run by former mercenary Tim Spicer) to execute operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Aegis now hires former child soldiers from Sierra Leone and Uganda, despite the formulation of a code of conduct for the industry. The film focuses on how the industry works and the ethical and political implications of the privatization of war, in large part told by the former child soldiers themselves.
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