Kids of fifteen may think they are grown up. They are still children.

There are no redeeming features to the abuse of children. Al Qaeda and the US authorities have jointly been guilty of the abuse of this child.

Even aside from this, the killing of which he is accused was not such as to justify a charge of murder, even if he had been an adult. Not unless all the killings on that day by both sides were murder.

If this had been a story about something the Russians had done in the course of their war in Afghanistan, I somehow doubt if Keith would think that it deserved defending.

What should be done with captured Al Qaeda fighters? They should be treated as prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. In the case of children they should be recognised as victims of war with special arrangements for rehabilitation.

The treatment of Omar Khadr has been and continues to be shameful. So are attempts to justify it.