Do we have any evidence that most of the people in Guantanamo are "ardent al Qaeda sympathizers," as opposed to some poor 16-year old (at the time) who got roped into fighting for them, and ended up kidnapped by US troops?

According to the US gov the prisoners at Guantanamo are the worst of the worst. That's why Obama wanted to transfer them all to a stateside supermax. He couldn't do that so he left them in place.

Is it your argument that a 16 yr-old couldn't be trained to be a soldier? Or that a 16 yr-old is incompetent to understand the consequences of his actions?

A 16-year old with limited literacy, knowledge of the world, and knowledge of the laws of war may well NOT have known the potential consequences of fighting for al Qaeda. All he may have known is that he was killing invaders or "bad people."

When we talk about an Afghan village, we're not talking about Podunk, MO, with access to books, the intarwebs, and CNN.

"may"

"killing"

Got it.

Typical narrow-minded Dumberican viewpoint, which thinks of a 16 yo from a small Afghan village as identical to the same person from Omaha, Nebraska.

Well there ya go. I don't believe in American exceptionalism and you do!

In my world, all men are created equal. I do not assume that because some kid is from Kardez that he must be inferior to a kid from Omaha. You do.

If the US was invaded, and the kid from Omaha plugged a few of the invaders in the back of the skull, I'd bet that you'll be calling for medals and parade floats on the 4th, not 12 years in solitary.

uh, we did not "kidnap" anyone. They were captured during legitimate military operations. By international law, they have little rights as detainees. Sucks to be them...but hey, they started this current round of ****