In the accepted account of the firefight where Omar Khadr was captured, he was shot twice in the back while hunched over after losing his right eye to shrapnel, either from bombs or grenades. Omar received first aid from a medic who had just arrived, and he repeatedly asked the medic to kill him. An officer was just about to order a private to kill Omar- a blatant war crime- when word came through that he was a potential intelligence asset. He was taken to Bagram Prison near Kabul, and once conscious spent the next three months being tortured and interrogated. He then spent eight years in Guantanamo where he was subject to further harsh interrogations, as well as inhumane treatment and torture. The Americans did that to him because against all likelihood, they believed that the 15 year-old boy knew much about the inner workings of al Qaeda.

Compassion to Omar Khadr is the proper response.