Like Ezra Levant, I'm not a fan of Omar Khadr, who has now completed his one-year sentence at Guantanamo, and is liable to be returned to Canada at any time.
Ezra has written a book on the topic (The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr), which predicts that when he returns to Canada (an inevitability, it seems), Khadr will be lionized by the left, fussed over by the CBC, and
will probably make a fortune giving speeches and appearances.
Ezra doesn't think Prime Minister Stephen Harper should let him back into the country of his birth, but there's no realistic way this can be stopped.
Ever since his capture while fighting with the Taliban, I've scolded away at those who use the "child soldier" excuse to absolve Khadr of blame for killing a U.S. soldier and critically wounding another. Even at age 15, Khadr knew what he was doing. In the past I've cited several Canadians who joined up at Khadr's age at the time, and fought wars on Canada's behalf.
So the age thing is a phony issue -- even though the kid was undoubtedly brainwashed by his dreadful family which has identified itself as mostly "al Qaida."
Where I part company with Ezra -- and the American government and judicial system -- is for punishing Omar Khadr for killing one American soldier and wounding another.
It should be remembered that he had gone to Afghanistan and was trained and serving with al Qaida and the Taliban before 9/11 happened, and before American troops invaded. What Khadr was doing when the Americans troops attacked the position he occupied, was fighting off an invading army. He was doing what any soldier or fighter would do when invaded by an outside, alien force.
To have charged Khadr with murder for fighting back against an invader seems an obvious abuse of law and power. As an enemy combatant, I see no problem in keeping him in custody, or out of circulation, until the war is over.
Khadr has spent close to 40 per cent of his life at Guantanamo. His life is already a mess, and it's doubtful if it can be salvaged.
It's completely understandable that the PM and most Canadians don't want the guy back in Canada. But he'll eventually be our problem. So what should be done about him, if anything?
Ezra sees him as a terrorist and murderer, noting that 153 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan, most of them with the sort of bombs that there are photographs of Khadr learning to make.
Frankly, there is no evidence that Khadr ever committed a terrorist act -- just that he fought to defend the regime to which he'd given his allegiance -- and probably still reveres.
The Khadr's haven't fared well with their support for Osama bin Laden. The father -- once freed by the Pakistanis at the request of then-PM Jean Chrétien -- was killed by Pakistanis in a later ambush; his youngest son was paralyzed by a bullet and is now dependent on Canada's medical system. One Khadr boy has renounced his former allegiance.
The mother's on record saying she'd be proud if a son became a suicide bomber. Omar Khadr didn't have much of a chance.
One hopes the parasites who will exploit him if (when) he is returned to Canada, don't do more damage to this already damaged person. To the left he is a "cause," not a human being.