BLOG STAGE 7 ASSIGNMENT

No shame in prosecuting a child!

A U.N. official says that child soldiers should be looked at as victims; which in any other war or uprising I would agree with. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are different. The Middle East is not like Africa where rebels go through villages murdering parents in front of their kids and then telling the kids if they don’t want to join their parents they will come fight for their cause. In the Middle East kids are raised to shun western civilization. They are brought up in their culture to fight against any western influence.

The guy that is on trial, his name is Omar Khadr, was 16 when he decided to make road side bombs (IEDs) and place them on the side of the road, and he was 16 when he decided to throw grenades at the U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, and he succeeded in killing a medic. They caught him on tape and he admitted to throwing the grenade. And get this… he is Canadian. He left his country origin for a war zone to blow up American Soldiers. Nobody forced him to do anything.

This will be the first military commissioned trial under Barack Obama and while it’s a crappy trial to draw first it should be a slam dunk. The “kid,” who is now 23, was an Al-Quaida operative who bragged about how his IEDs would kill the most American soldiers. Referring to the grenade incident that killed a medic, Khadr who is the son of a trusted associate of Osama Bin Ladin, said “It was the proudest moment of my life, when I threw that grenade.” Does that sound like he is a victim? He was breed to think the way he does and he is proud of his actions. We prosecute kids as adults in the U.S. with much less.

His Canadian lawyer said, “We’re just embarrassing ourselves by being here.” Oh well so sorry to inconvenience you but when someone blows up an American soldier, justice should be sought. The lawyer has also told his client that “Our job is to shame the process.” This is absolutely absurd, it wasn’t that long ago the U.S. was condemned for keeping prisoners without trial, now he’s got one.

The White House and the Pentagon have said that the case is solid but it is a public relations nightmare, but that there is no age limit under the Military Commissions Act that will prevent the case from proceeding.