So I know empathy comes really hard for some people, but let's for a moment try to imagine being born in Canada and being only nine years of age when your father ó who has been indoctrinating and brainwashing you your whole life ó moves the whole family to Afghanistan.
Does that little child look dad square in the eyes and assertively proclaim, "No, pa. I've decided I like it just fine right here in Canada. You go off to Afghanistan with mom and my brother, wage your holy war and leave me here all alone. I'll find a job and a place to rent. Trust me, I'll be fine. Heck, I'm all of nine years old now!"
Not likely.
And then what's this minor supposed to do once smack in the middle of a war zone that he was forced into, as his indoctrination not only continues but escalates to new heights. Is he just going to walk off of the compound one morning out into the desert and not expect to be summarily executed on the spot, probably by his own family?
Omar Khadr was failed on many fronts. First and foremost by his father and family, then by his own government, which while pretending to be a champion of human rights and rule of law, allowed the former brainwashed child soldier to wallow in a legal black hole for more than a decade enduring deplorable conditions, despite a serious lack of convincing evidence, aside from a coerced confession of a tortured teenager who wanted the pain to end. Noteworthy are photos of the scene following the infamous 2002 firefight that actually show him half buried under rubble, a rather difficult position from which to throw a grenade.
Even retired lieutenant-general RomÈo Dallaire believes the settlement was overdue and that justice was a long time in coming.
"We were ó and still are ó a country that has eloquently championed new global standards over the past 20 years that lay out protections for child soldiers," recently wrote in a column the retired Canadian soldier who saw first-hand the deplorable situation for countless child soldiers during his command of a UN force of peacekeepers in the 1990s during the Rwanda slaughter.
"And we have led efforts to end the terrible worldwide practice of drawing children into war. Yet when faced with this first example of a Canadian, one of our own children, needing that help, we looked away and abandoned him," expressed Dallaire.
Canadians should be listening to voices of reason such as Dallaire's, not the petty partisan political spin spewed by "leaders" who are more interested in riling up people's emotions in a cheap ploy to win votes than presenting rational, fact-based positions.
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Even retired lieutenant-general RomÈo Dallaire believes the settlement was overdue and that justice was a long time in coming.
