Wow. Children of War, directed by tonight’s guest Bryan Single, is jaw dropping stunning in both content and delivery. The story of children abducted and forced to join Ugandan rebel Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army, then rescued by government soldiers and brought to Rachele Rehabilitation Center is powerfully filmed in black and white over a three-year period.

Single and his crew had unprecedented access to process of healing these children, and focused on three in particular: Akulu, Nyero, and Polycap. Akula was kidnapped and given to rebel leader Abonga Papa as his wife. Polycap and Nyero gradually open up to their counselors and admit to having killed; they come to realize that their will was not their own.

At this very moment, we’re going to great lengths in Gitmo to villainize Omar Khadr, at least partly to dismiss all the criticism about trying a child soldier (for a crime that is not a crime). It’s as if those involved are trying to convince themselves that their war on terror trumps international norms of decency.

And even as we’re doing that, the President is taking affirmative steps to make it more likely that another boy, like Khadr, will be put in the same situation as him, attacked for following the orders of the adults around him.