A child soldier,

The child of the past decade, that survived and grew up in the death and destruction of the past decade plus, are the insurgent fighters of today and tomorrows!

Interrogated and Tried

Omar Khadr, shown in an undated photo, is now 24. (US Defense Press Operations/Getty Images)

November 22, 2010 - OUR NATIONAL debate over terrorism and the treatment of terrorist suspects tends towards the abstract. We often resort to hypothetical scenarios and argue without detail or specificity. This is inevitable, as so many key details are classified, and people with first-hand information tend to be unwilling or unable to speak to the public. Reality and consequences are lost in the shuffle.

However, a recent military tribunal verdict gave us an excellent opportunity to see the results of our “war on terror’’ policies, an object lesson on how these policies force us to compromise our values. We convicted a child soldier for war crimes. His name is Omar Khadr.

Michelle Shephard’s book "Guantanamo's Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr" does an excellent job establishing the details of Khadr’s childhood. Khadr, now 24, was born in Canada. When he was 4, his father took him to the Middle East for the first time, and then shuttled him back and forth frequently over the next few years, all the while indoctrinating the boy into an extremist, fringe interpretation of Islam. {read rest}