Last week, Omar Khadr, a Canadian man, was sentenced to forty years in prison by a U.S. military tribunal for throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan. Khadr, then fifteen years of age, was arrested and sent to Guantanamo. Although he will serve a reduced sentence, his conviction will stand.

The prosecution in the case closed their remarks in full vigor. “Make no mistake. The world is watching.” They asked the jury to “send a message” that the United States will not tolerate the actions of a terrorist; it will punish you when it captures you.

Indeed, the prosecution has it right. This conviction does the telling: Zero Tolerance. But it also sends another and a far less talked about message. Namely, that in this country, we will not distinguish between a juvenile and an adult defendant, or between someone who is handed a grenade by his parents and those who make an independent choice. That in this country, we will detain you, even if you are a minor, for nearly a decade; wait until you become an adult; then conduct your trial as an adult; and slap you with a huge sentence. That we will threaten you with torture and rape, maybe even execute some of those threats, force you to confess, and use your torture-driven confession against you for your prosecution. That we will deny you access to the civilian courts, even if you are a civilian child.

This message, Mr. Prosecutor, does not advance our security goals. It only demonstrates vengeance.

Prosecuting Khadr is like prosecuting a gun. As a child, he was a tool used by Al-Qaeda just like a weapon. Khadr was not influenced, rather, he was commanded to carry out Al-Qaeda’s missions. Does America expect children to say “no” when told by their families to fight with them? The answer to that, with this conviction, is self-explanatory and preposterous. On the other hand, if America hopes and expects to deter Al-Qaeda from recruiting their own children, the means used here get us nowhere. Al-Qaeda places many Khadrs on their line of duty to embrace death while defending their faith. How on earth will a forty-year sentence deter Al-Qaeda from recruiting minors? It simply will not. All this conviction and sentence does is exemplify irrational prosecution which has no place in international or even U.S. domestic law. This entire episode served only to expose America’s weaknesses, not the strength of its ideals.