The vitriolic nature of many comments today may just be denying the fact that in the 80's Ahmed Khadr and his like were "our" allies in the Cold War end game. Have we forgotten the Olympic boycotts of 1980 (by us) and 1984 (tit for tat by the Soviet bloc) ? It was all about Afghanistan, and the Islamists were "our" allies.  Now, the Khadrs are not Afghani, but many Islamists from many countries went to fight the Soviets and their local allies.  Nobody in the West was saying that this was the wrong side to support, just as many years earlier the wrong side in Iran had Western support. I don't recall anybody predicting what would happen after the Soviets were defeated by the Mujahedeen, and shortly after that what would happen after Saddam Hussein was driven out of Kuwait. I suspect the West was taken for a ride by the Saudis, in a way we are only beginning to grasp but refuse to acknowledge.  The Khadrs are simply  meat in that mincer.