The neo-cons in Canada are all a-twitter that their government is going to give Omar Khadr some $10 million in damages in payment for the suffering he underwent as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. The then 15 year old boy was sent by his father from Canada to Afghanistan to fight against an invading U.S. army; while there, he threw a grenade which killed a U.S. soldier.
According to a petition I was asked to sign written by a Canadian taxpayer group: “… giving Khadr $10 million of taxpayer money is a slap in the face to the families of Canadian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan by people who were fighting alongside Khadr. Not that the federal government has an extra $10 million kicking around, but if they did, they should give it to Canadian veterans wounded in Afghanistan or perhaps the family of US Army Sgt. Christopher Speer who was killed by the grenade that Khadr admitted he threw.”
I certainly agree that it would be improper for the Canadian government to be handing out other people’s money, most of whom would not support any such payment. But what were Canadians doing in Afghanistan in the first place? Did any Afghanis start up by coming over to Canada and attacking Canadians? Did the Canadian government have the “decency” to declare war against the sovereign nation of Afghanistan? Of course not. How would Canadians like it if there were an Afghani army fighting in Canada with no provocation whatsoever from the latter? Would we not welcome, as heroic, a 15 year old Canadian boy who defended his country against such an invading army?
Give money to Canadian veterans wounded in Afghanistan? But this implies that there was some justification for the Canadian military to be fighting in that far off land. No one,…