Just how innocent is a 15-year-old "child soldier"? Yes, there was probably a lot of misguided youthful spirit in his enthusiasm to protect a regime that would have turned all of Afghanistan into a Guantanamo for most of its citizens, including anyone female. Robert Mugabe has used such boys to hold on to power in Zimbabwe; Chairman Mao brilliantly exploited teenagers as the shock troops of his so-called Cultural Revolution. It seems that the mobs who provoked British soldiers in places like Boston, on the eve of the American revolt, were mostly fired-up  boys. Were these 'patriots', gleefully tarring and feathering suspected Loyalists (including many Canadians' ancestors), innocent? How innocent was the bully at your school?