Widow Testifies at a Military Court

[LavCat]

I feel bad for him too. I don't think he had much to do with the choices that brought him to Gitmo. He was only 15 when he was in the midst of a firefight wherein he threw a grenade.

I am not buying this line, particularly "he didn't have much to do with the choices" line.

His age is no excuse. None. Zero. He was on the battlefield, he participated.

He wanted to play with the big boys, he gets to pay the big boy price. Or, he got conscripted to play with the big boys, and he paid the big boy price. That's a very old story, older than you or me by a lot.

Your arbitrary distinction based on age, for reasons that mystify me, is an irrelevancy to his role in the business of slaughter: war.

No sympathy.

I understand that from your viewpoint, he made his choice when he arranged to be born into that gawdawful family. However, most of the rest of us believe that minors have limited moral responsibility and no legal responsibility for their actions. Their parents do. That doesn't help anyone in a war zone, but it does, in my mind, temper my judgement of their actions.

It is an old story. Euripides (c. 485-406 B.C.), Phrixus, fragment 970: "The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children." In this case, the father has already paid the final price.

The young man who got thrust into the fire fight still deserves my sympathy. I doubt that many of us would acquit ourselves better, were we required to walk in his shoes.

Last week my boss mentioned that one of her relatives (a young boy) and a friend hid in a tree and shot and killed an English officer. The boys were, of course, shot. And are family heros.