Quote:
Originally Posted by iggy_oi
I could understand people simply not being happy about the way the situation played itself out. I disagree however that most understand the reasoning behind the settlement. Too many people keep going back to the "he should have thought about the consequences before he became a terrorist" argument. Or they ignore any of the facts about his age and whether or not he really had a choice in where he ended up. This part is frustrating to me because it seems to demonstrate a lack of basic human decency. I mean if some sick and twisted parent has their kid selling drugs or pimps out their child from a young age and that child is arrested at 15 in a sting operation would these same people be calling the children in these cases whores and drug dealers the same way they are calling Khadr a terrorist?
It's frustrating anyway you look at it, except I don't think the frustration should be aimed at Khadr, we didn't go through what he went through and we don't know all the details surrounding what happened in Afghanistan or in his life leading up to that point, maybe he's playing everyone for a fool, who knows? There's no sense getting all bent out of shape over something that we can't be certain of. Same with the people blasting Trudeau, should he have fought it? Maybe. Should he have not? Maybe. All I know is he is probably in a much better position to make that call than anyone complaining about it.
My frustration is with the way the government treated Khadr, and with the reactions of political opponents. Conservative and Liberal governments of the past screwed up, and a Canadian citizen was wronged, that much we know. Instead of looking at who to blame for the fall out, both parties should be looking at what's best for Canadians, which would be answering the question of how can we best prevent something like this from happening again. Instead the liberals are in damage control and the conservatives are busy trying to get that money to an American war widow. Neither of which is helping Canadians. All the while canadians are losing it over a bunch of money instead of also looking at how did this happen and how can we make sure our government isn't able to do something like this again to anyone. Like it or hate it, we maintain the rights we have by people holding the government accountable.
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This is a great post imo...
I think this is where a lot of the arguments are coming from.
the settlement was awarded based on the violation of Khadr's rights while at Gitmo, as determined by the Supreme Court.
How how got to Gitmo isn't the issue.
Obviously lots of people disagree with what he did. I certainly don't condone Canadians going over to fight on foreign soil... However there is the mitigating circumstance that he was a kid who was taught to hate...the actual ability for him to make rationale choices in the heat of battle is another. Even the US soldiers present had different recollections of what exactly happened, and some of these guys were Special Forces, not some 15 year old kid...
There's a reason its called the Fog of War.
Did he deserve 10 million? Well, that number is definitely up for debate...would people feel better if that number was 5 Million? 2 Million?
Based on every lawyer I've read, a settlement was going to happen as a result of the SCC decision, it was simply a matter of time and how much... Canada could have continued to fight, however a political calculation was made that this was actually the more inexpensive course of action.
Anyone thinking that this decision was a 'smart' one for the Liberal government just needs to look at the fallout from the polls. This was not a decision made to make political hay: Far, far from it...But they made a determination that it was the "right" decision to make...