What are we doing America?

The Pentagon announced today that Guantanamo Bay detainee, Omar Khadr, has plead guilty. He is the youngest prisoner in the controversial facility. Khadr was accused of throwing a hand grenade during a firefight back in 2002 and killing an American citizen, Army Sgt. 1st cClass Christopher Speer in Afghanistan. This is the first trial for the military commission since President Obama took office.

The Canadian citizen plead guilty to "murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, two counts of providing material support for terrorism and spying in the United States, a Canadian diplomat said," as reported by CNN.

Khadr was a 15 year old child solider when he was involved in that firefight in 2002. 

And as of yet the United States sign hasn't signed the Optional Protocol to the Rights of the Child. We still allow children under the age of 18 to join the military with parental consent. Though the Pentagon has assured Human Rights NGOs that these children aren't used as combatants.

But in 2008, President Bush, in a rare moment of intelligence signed into law the Child Soldiers Accountability Act. This Act allows the United States to prosecute any person who knowingly and willfully recruited children under 15 even if they were recruited and served outside of the United States.

And just two short years after vowing to protect children around the world and bring their tortures to justice we are sending a child solider to jail.

What message are sending to the rest of the world? We care about people who use children as combatants as long as that child doesn't kill an American? Then we prosecute the child, after we detain them for years in a facility where they are housed with adults. Is rehabilitation of criminals only good for American citizen. Khadr spent more time behind bars for being a child solider than most rapists in the United States.

This is not a bright day in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave......