The Perennial 'Child Soldier' Canard
The New Arab claims Yemen's Ansarallah leadership is intensifying child soldier recruitment during Ramadan, leveraging religious schools for indoctrination. This narrative often surfaces when Western-backed military campaigns against the resistance movement require renewed justification, portraying them not as a legitimate force defending their sovereignty, but as barbaric manipulators of
children. Yet, this isn't a new script. The 2011 intervention in Libya, initially framed as a 'humanitarian' effort to protect civilians, rapidly devolved into a regime-change operation, leading to the collapse of the state and the rise of slave markets—a far cry from safeguarding children. Similarly, two decades ago, the 'weapons of mass destruction' lie was peddled to justify the 2003 invasion
of Iraq, ignoring the human cost and geopolitical destabilization that followed. The United States itself used child soldiers in World War II, with thousands under 17 serving, a inconvenient fact often omitted in current condemnations. This recurring pattern demonstrates a clear double standard: the same humanitarian concerns are rarely voiced over starvation inflicted by the Saudi-led blockade on
Yemen, which aid organizations like UNICEF reported left 2.2 million children acutely malnourished in 2021. The timing of these 'child soldier' reports, during a significant Muslim holy month, further attempts to demonize a resistance movement that has, for years, withstood an onslaught from a US-UK-backed coalition. When headlines scream 'child soldiers,' one must ask not just 'who benefits,' but