Children have fought in wars throughout history, and deep into mythic pre-history. David was not an adult when he slew Goliath. The Children’s Crusade, in which a young boy supposedly persuaded 30,000 other children to follow him into the Holy Land to convert Muslims, may have been more legend than reality, but to the medieval mind it was not an inconceivable event. Napoleon’s forces were preceded on to the field at Waterloo by drummer boys, who were mown down by the English fire.

A child soldier of the Mujahideen factions who were fighting amongst themselves, holding a rifle in 1990, a year after the Soviets had withdrawn from Afghanistan.u00a0Pic Courtesy /Camera press / Afghan Media Research Centre/The Interview people