There has been a lot of talk lately about the Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Barrett Brown, Carl Ellsberg and Julien Assange, et al; what they represent, what they mean to this country and what they really are.
There are almost as many points of view as there are commentators on the subject but no matter how you feel about these men and others like them, you must admit that they have certainly been catalysts for controversy.
For once, surprisingly, the biggest noise isn’t coming from the faux patriots. They are out there, of course, ranting about traitorous behavior, calling for heads, constructing accusations of everything from sabotage to wetting the bed. Ask them if they can identify any evil motive in the actions of the accused and they will rant that such minor details have no importance, that all that matters is that these evildoers have revealed to the world that which our government didn’t want revealed.
It’s a sincere, if not altogether logical argument when put forth by citizens but it is completely specious when constructed by the same government that has been embarrassed and hung out to dry by the revelations.
If you want to believe that Bradley Manning is wrong because he revealed classified documents that the military didn’t want revealed, you have at least a smidgeon of an argument but if you want to claim he’s a traitor for showing the American people what their government is doing in their name then you haven’t a clue as to how to define traitor. The biggest accusation against Manning is that he endangered the lives of people whose names appeared in the revealed documents. I watched the other night as Barney Frank blustered about this on a Real Time show. Unfortunately for the uniformed accusers this attack has been completely dismissed by Brigadier General Robert Carr the senior counter-intelligence officer in charge of investigating it. He has stated, unconditionally, at Manning’s trial, that no one has been killed or injured as a result of the revelations made by Manning.
Of course the men who were shown in the video that Manning released, the ones killing innocent civilians and even two Reuters reporters don’t much care that no ne has been killed as a result of the revelations. They and their commanders just want Manning put away where no one can talk to him. Manning is tried but those he showed to be killers run loose. Is this American justice? Is this what the military is so diligently defending by their crucifixion of Manning?
The arguments that are currently flying around the country can only be resolved if we can first resolve the responsibility of the government to the citizens who elect it. That’s right, folks, the government is responsible to the citizens, not the other way around. You would never think this if you listen to most of our elected officials bluster and blubber about how Manning, Snowden and the rest had let down the government or if you see the way whistleblowers are treated by a government that claims to represent us.
But did Manning and Snowden let us down, or did an army private, given access to documents that showed the military and the State Department acting in ways that he believed were in contravention of acceptable moral behavior and direct opposition to the standards set out by the constitution, finally, after being ignored by his command structure, act according to his moral responsibility.
None of this was ever addressed at Manning’s trial, mostly because the army would have found itself in an indefensible position and Manning would have walked immediately and that’s not what the power structure wants here. This trial was not about arriving at a just decision, this trial was about punishing a young man for showing up the military and our diplomatic service.
The fact that the men in the videos that Manning released have not been brought to justice for the commission of war crimes is incomprehensible. What is just as unbelievable is that the men who commanded these perpetrators have not been apprehended either. The shooters are responsible for a war crime. Those who commanded them and those who ignored their actions are even worse. The shooters were in a combat situation and men often react badly under the stresses of combat but their commanders and those who have ignored the situation are just desk jockeys trying to minimize their paper work and attempting to avoid getting into any kind of situation that could reflect back on them.
Manning in releasing the video of this tragic event has put all these dangerous or incompetent clowns in danger and they in turn are being protected by bigger dangerous and incompetent clowns right up the line. This expansion happens until the whole corps is involved and they all hate the whistleblower. It’s easy to see that these guys would do anything, follow any order, just to avoid any problems. Just like the guys who led all those Jews into the ovens, they were just following orders.
What the hell ever happened to moral responsibility? What the hell ever happened to American spirit? Where the hell is this country going?