You are nuts. My son is 15. He's only just starting to notice girls. He manages to figure out the consequences of his plans for the most part after he implements them. He believes for the most part what he has heard me say. His world, despite our best efforts, is pretty narrow.

For you to say he is an adult simply makes me laugh. He hasn't even hit his growth spurt yet.

Most boys grow 3-5 inches AFTER they are 15. I just came up to most of my female classmates' breasts when I was 15. It was an okay place to be, I'll admit, but it's not where I ended up standing as an adult a few years later.

http://www.votestrike.com/

"As I read the story of what we've done and do, my heart breaks for sorrow, by head bows for shame.

We have killed all our yesterdays and tomorrows and today is busting into flame..."

-- Crazy Bird

More likely this was another 'Pat Tillman' event. Punishing the innocent is Truth, Justice and The American Way!

"At that point the brave Americans called in an air strike, and clobbered the building. After that softening up, they went inside to pick up the pieces."

So the brave Mr. Lindorf wouyld have entered the building and disarmed the five men? This is a real reach for the point he wants to make.

I'm sure he will get plenty of agreement, but yes, I believe you should have some experience before commenting on things like this.

Let me explain that someone with an AK 47 is not a child.

And yet US soldiers and Blackwater personnel kill Iraqi civilians indiscriminately and they get off scott free.

Canada has been relatively spineless in fighting for this boy's rights. What has not helped is that his mother and aunt are radical Muslims and have expressed malevolent opinions on national tv in Canada.

Let me ask you something, Mr. More: if soldiers from some other country invaded the U.S. and you and your son and some neighbors were holed up in a house after a rough week of fighting, and suddenly you saw through a window a group of the invaders heading towards your house, dropping bombs on you, and firing on you, and your son had the brass cahones to fight back against those bastard invaders even when wounded and lying in a pool of blood on the floor with your neighbors' corpses around you - would you say "hell yes, invaders, take the miscreant child!" or would you cheer for your son and the brave patriot that he was?

You know the freaking answer to that question. America invaded Afghanistan. Every Afghani had the right - if not the DUTY - to fight back, just like they do in Iraq. If some other country invades the U.S., I'm grabbing my guns and fighting the hell BACK. It's called patriotism, you moron. Just because it is the U.S. doing the invading, killing, and destroying doesn't make it any less evil.

Thomas More seems to be under the impression that it the sacred and god given right of any US soldier to kill anyone they please anywhere in the world and that any that stand against them, must by extension be a terrorist.

The tough as nails , I am a marine and how dare you question me is not going to fly on these boards Mr More. Try Free republic and you will get a cacaphony of support.

The underlying question is, why is Khadr deemed a terrorist just because he decided to fight against people that were trying to kill him, and had a reputation for shooting prisoners and the wounded?

Goodness...lets call all those Vietnamese that killed Americans in Vietnam terrorists as well, arrest and sue them for daring to shoot at an American. They should have been grateful to be shot by people who love freedom and liberty..not so?

Demonstorm and GwNorth,

you have my thanks.

Jean-Paul Sartre in response to Alleg's La Question made a point ominously pertinent to us today:

"In 1943, in the Rue Lauriston (the Gestapo headquarters in Paris), Frenchmen were screaming in agony and pain. All France could hear them. In those days the outcome of the war was uncertain and we did not want to think about the future. Only one thing seemed impossible in any circumstances: that one day men should be made to scream by those acting in our name."

So the mightiest army in the world bombs the hell out of a weak and helpless nation killing countless innocent civilians who have done no harm to an American citizen. The U.S soldiers shoot innocent civilians, torture them, humiliate them, keep them locked up for years under inhumane conditions.

So a 15 year old boy fights back and he's treated like some big war criminal.

Man, oh man, is USA fucked up. (including you Thomas Moore)

if amerika had to fight a real army then amerika would shit it's milataristic pants. try china or russia. china would make dog meat of the amerikan army. amerikans are cowards. but it really does not matter because amerika is the newest member of the third world. the ignorant, hate-filled people have met their match in iraq/afghan certainly iran/pakistan. american military are cowards that enjoy murdering people that can't defend theirselves. too bad amerika, you lost-better get use to it.

Demonstorm and GwNorth, Thanks for expressing the opinion many of us hold.
Mr. Moore or Less, Perhaps you should brush up on THE BILL OF RIGHTS, in particular Amendment.III.

oh, Mr thomas More, just how much experience does a person need to kill women and children that can't defend theirselves. what did any iraqi or afghai ever do to you except defend their families and land from murderous hate-filled amerikans.

Here's the point, Moore. I don't have to be in the situation of an imperialist oppressor to know how it feels to be defended against. If I had been in that kid's situation, I'd like to think I'd have had the guts to do just what he did.

I'm sorry Speer had to die for an invasion that was all about giving Bush dictatorial powers. Poor Speer wasn't hunting Osama, like he might have imagined.

But as for Khadr, he simply did what a good soldier would want to do--go down fighting.

He was certainly no terrorist.

And sorry to say, I see no courage in calling in an air strike. People are quick to call American soldiers "heroes." How heroic is it to see an enemy and call in the Air Force or the Navy? In my book, that's bullying and cowardice. Heroes are people who fight fair, like the knights of old who would hand a man his sword if he dropped it.

There's not a lot of heroism in what americans did to Vietnamese in that war and there's not a lot of heroism in what Americans are doing to Iraqis and Afghans in this one.

Dave:
It isn't necessarily the job of the American serviceman to fight fair. General Patton described it something like "...not dying for our country but making that other poor bastard die for his country".

It wasn't the job of the American serviceman to make America a colonial power until the neocons finally came off the margins and found themselves in control.

A military designed to make short work of the Soviet/Warsaw Pact war machine in total war is not a good fit for colonial adventures and occupations. Not enough troops and too many WMD just to start.

Thanks for the exceptional moral clarity, Mr Lindorff.

Unfortunately, like many quaint old notions about justice and fair play, your concept of heroism has been rendered obsolete. Anyone who would hand an opponent his sword would be classified as a fool by current American standards. Gallantry is for losers and today's America equates heroism with winning at all costs.

As for the USAF's brave contributions, please note that their new motto is "ABOVE ALL". I'm not sure if they're paying royalties for borrowing the Nazi "UBER ALLES" slogan, but it's not really such a bad fit in the circumstances.

bbr-001 wrote,

"It wasn't the job of the American serviceman to make America a colonial power until the neocons finally came off the margins and found themselves in control."

The imperialist brutality of the USA goes way back before any "neocons". What do you call Vietnam? Please Read "Klling Hope - A history of US military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, by William Blum

Excellent article. Don't appreciate the obscenity, as everyone is entitled to an opinion here.

Now where I stand: removing persons from the battlefield to a third nation is a war crime, specifically outlawed under Geneva. Does Geneva apply? You bet it does. Violations by our nation's leaders should get them off the hook no more than anyone out in the field.

I recommend Breaker Morant, I think it is, a South African Boer war-era movie about the enforcement of law in counterinsurgency warfare, where the rules are violated routinely. The British have good reason to suspect some Boer (Dutch) as working for the insurrection, so they "click"/kill them (extrajudicial.) It's hard not to be sympathetic for the English officer tried by a military court.

But hey administering the law is what separates the English from the insurgents, or Iraqi insurgents from the US. Al Qaeda can be treated differently, but even there we're running into problems trying them after torture was used.

There's also the scene in Saving Private Ryan when they want to cap the German they take prisoner, who goes on to get Hanks' character.

The logic is that the enemy will not follow the rules of engagement, so why should we? Well, we can't be the good guys if we break the rules, even if--especially if--the bad guys break the rules. It's a moral dilemma. That said, if it were me, and my survival were an issue, I'd drop the dude. Captured, he should be tried like anyone else, but then again he was following the rules, and wasn't al Qaeda, just young. 20 year sentence and move on.

And when are they going to start prosecuting the unborn? After all, they could be dangerous too. Life has become an expandable commodity - or so it seems.

To apply reason to any given situation is beyond the ability of the vast majority of Amerikans; when under any duress of any type, their solution is simply to shoot from the hip and not ask questions!

"The imperialist brutality of the USA goes way back before any "neocons". What do you call Vietnam?"

Imperialist brutality from America extends even to the 1800s. Remember, we STOLE more than half of Mexico after we invaded with no provocation, after, of course, stealing Texas.

I still say, that after thousands of years of "civilization" the answer to international strife is war, and that is so wrong. But to insure that there will be future wars, America continues to arm the world, presumably so that they will have something to defend themselves with when the US invades their country. And now, when they do, they are terrorists. Love my country, not so much. Definitely ashamed of my government!

OK, you have made your case that the idiots are running the asylum and the rest of us are just fodder for their games. We need a new President; our Democratic Congress and its lack of backbone is not going to do anything to stop this miscarriage of justice. What else would you like for us to do besides agree with you? Any suggestions?

It is truly embarrassing that there are still people like Thomas More who can defend this brutality and see war crimes as only acts committed against our forces, not by them.

But here's some good news. People like More belong to a frightened, dwindling minority. They are the last of those intimidated and cowardly conservatives who require a Strong Father Figure to lead them by the hand through life and yet oddly, at the same time, require a bogey man to fear, someone to perpetually hate.

Most of the people who write responses like his, who support every brutality, who spew xenophobia and racism, and of course cheer on all Republican wars, almost certainly never fought in one and have a world view so narrow and ill-informed that their opinions cannot be taken seriously by anyone but their own pathetic ilk.

But like I said, this is a shrinking, pitiful sub-culture (watch Olbermann's numbers growing daily). The majority of Americans oppose this war, as well as military action against Iran. That is why the right-wing mouth-breathers of hate radio and TV are so desperate: they know they are losing power and that what is left of their rapidly diminishing audience is made up of loud-mouthed chickenhawks, permanently frightened little boys, the last hangers-on to a failed presidency and an odd assortment of racists, fundamentalists and sadists.

There is no point whatsoever dealing with these sad remnants of a dying political party. They cannot be enlightened, they cannot be saved. Our energy should be spent unifying the Left and restoring our Constitution and our image abroad. Leave those that would deny that alone to the obscurity and obsolescence that they so richly deserve and that most surely awaits them.

The US eight fold path of imperial wisdom for gasoline pump nirvana :
1. The oil belongs to the US.
2. Foreigners are to be bombed, shot, starved and/or poisoned.
3. Because of logistical difficulties killing everyone with US forces alone, some foreigners are to be bribed to become collaborators and help with the killing and drilling tasks.
4. Captured foreigners that annoy the US are to be framed, incarcerated and tortured, for the rest of their lives , or disappeared, as an example to the others.
5. Foreign lives belong to the US. They can be disposed of after reaching use by date.
6. The world belongs to the US.
7. The sun shines from the US Commander in Chiefs benevolent honest wisdom, and Americans can relax, be happy and safe, because he will take care of the dirty work.
8. The Commander in Chief advises God on how to stop climate change, make coal clean, and make nuclear radiation safe, and maintain the value of the American Dollar. I am sure God will listen to reasonable threats.

15 years old is not a child.

My grandmother learned to drive when she was like 14.

The anti-Americanism of this website is appalling.

The 15 year old man tried to kill some of our soldiers. He threw a grenade at them. He was fighting with the enemy, therefore he was the enemy. Why does this need to be any more complicated?

Liberals are really stupid. I'm not voting this year. I wish we did not have a election system, a Congress... or presidents. The Democrats and the Republicans both want really powerful governments. It's tyranny.

I think a better idea is to create a new system, electronic, whereby each citizen gets a political profile when they reach the voting age of 16 and on that profile they check off what issues they support and which they don't. Every year a tally is made to see what percentages there are for each issue. If 60% or more support the issue, say, of building more nuclear reactors, then we'll add that program to the national tax.

Something like this. Because trying to care about voting for candidates and taking political sides and being anti-American like the people in the comments here for this article at Common Dreams... I hate all this shit. Both Republicans and Democrats are fucking assholes.

Mr Lindorff,

You see, the first sign of anti-Americanism is having the temerity to address America's problems and sins. The above poster does not believe there are any. Now that's patriotism!

As to the age thing, I can imagine him/her shrieking in horror if they drafted his/her 15 year old son. I think this "man" label would instantly be rescinded.

When will these people just for God's sake become extinct and let us get on with reality?

The US media has done a tremendous job of hiding from the public the known fact that the building Kadr was in was bombed from the air, all his associates were killed, and he already seriously wounded was then assaulted by armed soldiers. If Kadr's action was not an act of self defence, presuming he ever threw a grenade which is itself highly dubious (the original report said that he didn't, and was later changed to say that he did primarily because he was the only one left alive) someone will have to explain to me what they'd expect their son of the same age to do in the same circumstances.

Thanks for getting the truth out about this case. That it has taken this long to see a single article speaking in defence of Kadr is a national disgrace. King George III did not have the power to abuse people as the US now routinely does, and those in the US call King George III a tyrant. All power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr. Lindorff,
Thank you. These "christian, pro-life" leaders need an hour or so with the real Jesus, AFTER he pushes over the money-changers' tables.