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The Heroism of PFC Bradley Manning
At the US Army’s Intelligence Training Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 2003 and 2004, our first term paper was assigned to be on the military intelligence hero of our choice. The museum there had several dozen to choose from, though I forget now who I wrote about. Aside from the occasional joke (Isn’t M.I. an oxymoron?) I don’t think I got much out of it. So here I am: seven years, one degree, and a hell of a lot of heartache later, re-writing the paper, which I intend to submit in its entirety to the commander of that school.
I am writing today about PFC Bradley Manning, and why he is my new M.I. hero. Mr. Manning has the distinction of being the prominent “wiki-leaker” suspected of the 92,000 document upload featured in the news this last week. I look up to Mr. Manning specifically because he had the guts to do what I didn’t: expose the lie that is war.
My proudest moment as a US Army intelligence analyst came when I was in Iraq. I did a comprehensive study of civilian sectarian violence in and around Baghdad. Roughly a few weeks before the Lancet published a study that estimated more than 550,000 Iraqis had been killed between 2003 and 2006, I had corroborative, classified intelligence to the same effect. After first mapping out a GIS database of all insurgent weapons caches, findings of bodies by US forces, and reports of kidnapping, I made a series of overlays that gave each 50-meter area its own designation: weapon cache site, insurgent checkpoint, body dumping ground, or sectarian-contested area. In this way, using empirical classified data, I correctly predicted a dozen sites where armed militants were manning checkpoints and kidnapping civilians. The cache report also led, simultaneously, to the largest find of illicit explosives to that date in Iraq: nearly a thousand artillery rounds piled in a junkyard north of Baghdad.
After completing this phase of the study, I was surprised to learn that the Rand Corporation was being contracted by the Department of Defense to do a similar GIS study at the cost of several million dollars. Intrigued, I found a copy on the army’s secret computer network, the SIPRNET, and was disgusted with the obviousness of the results. The Rand’s expensive product was very simply a satellite image of the main highway in Iraq, with a few highlighted areas named “IED Hotspots”. This was nothing that a few hours on the ground wouldn’t tell any soldier in the army; but somehow, someone behind a desk in DC was making tons of money off it.
The next phase of the study was kind of an accident. I had the unfortunate experience of being assigned to guard the base for 97 nights on a metal tower behind the burning cesspools of the American occupiers’ filth. Several times, I was shot at on this guard duty, late at night. Once or twice we were mortared as well. After returning to my job as an analyst, I half-jokingly set myself the task of finding these attacks in the database, where they should have been after my reports. Surprise: they were not there. Thus began my next project: determining the actual extent of the databases’ failure.
For two weeks I worked non-stop to get a picture of the accuracy of the data that ultimately determined the narrative that our commanders told themselves and their bosses. My best estimate was that 30-50% of attacks on US forces went unreported at this time. This number was worse for the Iraqi Army, where probably 70% of attacks went unreported, unless casualties were taken.
Another part of my job was to sit in on the nightly classified SIPRNET briefings for the Multi-national Division Baghdad. Major General JD Thurmond, then in charge, would start every night about 6 pm with a hearty Salaam Alaikum, Baghdad! This briefing would often include visiting Senators and other administration officials, as well as Iraqi officials. One night as I was preparing this phase of my study, I was amused to listen for nearly an hour as two of Thurmond’s associates tried to claim credit for a perceived drop in violence in an area recently turned over to the Iraqi Army. One general argued that it was his superior training and logistics that had prevailed against the insurgents. Another claimed it was the cultural similarities of the Iraqi troops that made them adaptable to the territory. Never did it cross any of their minds that perhaps attacks were actually increasing against the Iraqi army at this point, but not making it to their screens in the nightly briefing. Thurmond settled the issue by saying something to the effect that more area should be turned over to the Iraqi unit as soon as possible.
My point in sharing these stories is twofold. First, I would hope to illustrate the principle of a lost narrative. Not only is the information fed to the American media and often inaccurate (even to the point of being propaganda), but the information that the military uses to form its own narrative of conflict is skewed. Second, that sometimes even the privates in the army know better than the generals in charge. This almost certainly is the case for PFC. Bradley Manning, now in jail accused of leaking information to the world.
Mr. Manning, at twenty-two, is something of a hero to me now. We went through the US Army’s Intelligence Analyst School at Fort Huachuca Arizona at different times, but I feel like we are on the same page. My biggest regret about my time in Iraq is that I didn’t leak the information I had access to. One can only hope that these soldiers, in better position to see the situation than anyone else, continue to leak the military’s secrets to the world.
I have to admit, I am not surprised at the reaction of the media to this latest leak. For a bunch of idiots hiding in the green zone, I don’t think there is much to their supposed analysis of the situation beyond what they get spoon-fed by the military’s press liaisons. That anyone could expect the press coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be anything other than utter drivel is pretty ironic. Not as ironic, though, as General Mattis telling a roomful of reporters that Wikileaks “already has blood on their hands.”
If I couldn’t tell the generals a single thing as an intelligence analyst when I was in the Army, maybe I could have told the world. I have to wonder about a country that would send me to war as a twenty-year-old virgin but is shocked and unwilling to hear of the horrible things that happen there on a regular basis. If these 92,000 or so “documents” are what the military is using to assess its own situation, it makes one wonder what doesn’t make it into their database. The questions that the media has failed to ask extend far beyond those posed by the comparatively mundane Wikileaks documents exposed this week.
Perhaps now that the administration has some of the public looking over its shoulder, it will be compelled to tell the truth about Afghanistan. So far, the only challenge to the war propaganda has been the rising number of coalition casualties. Now, it seems, the monumental task of making up reasons for these numbers is going to have to fit in with the half-truth of the Afghanistan database documents.
As far as the courageous PFC Manning goes, he is my new military intelligence hero. Thanks, Brad. And shame on you, media, for being out-reported by a twenty-two year-old kid with a laptop. But most of all, shame on you, US Army, for forcing a kid to be the one to finally expose the truth about your costly and deadly wars.
- Posted in
81 Comments so far
Show AllAs I wrote here a couple of days ago would happen, the Wikileak story is already over. Log onto Yahoo News. Not a single story on it in lead stories, US news, Politics News, "most popular." nothing. If you go on Google News, which is a wider spectrum including overseas news agencies, you'll find three stories on the topic out of over a hundred on the front page. All three of them are about the danger supposedly created by the leaks, and the intent to prevent them better, not their content or what that content says about the past, present, and future viability of the wars.
The reason for that is there is no market among American news consumers to view any news reports examining the documents from that angle. And the reason for that is there is not now, nor has there ever been, an anti-war movement against the current American wars, nor against our general tendency to be a warlike nation. Complain about the media all you want, but from our end, we did not build a market for news to address our point of view, as existed for the Vietnam War. We'll never know if the media would have responded to such a market, because we didn't build it, but historical evidence has shown that news, like any other product in a capitalist system, is market driven. Tremendous resources have been poured (and not just by Fox News and rich Republican operatives -- the Democratic Party did it, too) into establishing and maintaining the pro-war news market -- it's not like the media is pouring its pro-war perspective into a vacuum. There's a huge market for it. There is no anti-war market. And the small percentage of anti-war Americans go out of their way to never, ever, do anything generally newsworthy. Newsworthy means "out of the ordinary." A protest rally isn't out of the ordinary. It's ordinary. And anything that's out of the ordinary that's done just once isn't out of the ordinary, either.
So back to the question I've been asking for a long time on these boards: who among Common Dreams readers is doing active anti-war organizing within their own community right now? Not facebook, not the Wednesday night vigil on the corner where you've been standing with the same six people for the last 8 years, not circulating URL's of online petitions -- actual hands-on organizing. Anyone?
The right wing groups that are successfully organized today meet face to face regularly even though they should theoretically be as susceptible to the lures of internet isolation as anyone else. The biggest and best example is the religious fanatics. They go to church every Sunday. They go to other events like picnics, bible study, clothes and food drives, they send their kids to church camps, they are constantly together, doing things, constantly reinforcing that they're more with their friends, and people with whom they are bonded around common beliefs and interest, in other words, family, not so much "political activists." People will do anything, and persist in it against all odds and regardless of effort and sacrifice required, when they feel they are defending their family. Tea Party people actually meet, too, at restaurants, libraries, community centers, etc. If they survive, it will be because they're friends in the real world, not because they send out a lot of spam.
We progressives, however, do none of this. None of us have a regular Wednesday night movie night with other progressives, or have a bowling league, picnics, or a Sunday morning get-together where we talk about our progressive values, the way fundamentalist Christians physically get together to reinforce their sense of family and their reactionary values that are their membership card.
Superficially, you're right. We need non-compliance. We need resistance. We need to absent ourselves from the consumerism that provides the infrastructure to right-wing power. But the problem is, progressives are not going to heed such a call, because we've done nothing to create an environment in which we recognize and support each other, so we are not a peer group, let alone a family. The idea is nothing more than an idea you and a tiny number of isolated progressives located at remote distances from each other might come up with and adhere to, unless we start from square one with basic organizing.
So, again: anyone out there in CD land doing any organizing in your locale?
If ten progressives got together in a room, two would be undercover agents from different alphabet agencies, each thinking there were nine progressives, the most unAmerican and dangerous of which was the other spy.
Trylon
This is hilarious. True, but hilarious.
Yep, you gave me my laugh for the day, too. But please get out there and start organizing. When you get your Fed, you'll have bragging rights for your region.
OF course I do, now are your going to raise the bar on your definition of "Hands On"?
Tell us what "hands on" you do since you are setting yourself up as the gatekeeper of "hands On" stuff.
Can you at least thank the new heros for peace whistle blowers, coming out now?
I am not the gatekeeper of "hands-on." This is one of those "you know it when you see it" things. It is the opposite of "virtual." I have spelled out its two most general requirements: it is live, and it is regular.
Examples:
AA and all 12 step groups
Any religion
Every Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department (my favorite example)
Democratic and Republican Party Committees
It's not like everyone has given up being organized in preference of virtual reality. Those, and many others, are in every neighborhood and town in America. The meetings are held every week, and there are social activities, too. Any drunk who wants a lift to detox gets one. Every fire gets put out. Almost everyone who gets elected is a Democrat or Republican. It's timeless, it works, and computers can help because they're more powerful than phone calls -- but they are not substitutes for "hands-on" organizing.
It's possible that a strong case could be made that the only interest group in America that is totally not organizing is progressives. But man, we sure have millions of blogs, message boards, and online petitions. And we win nothing. Ever.
There are organizing tips here: www.commonplans.blogspot.com and no, I don't want any money. All I'm asking is that people give it a try. It works in my town.
Whoops. Whoa, there. Dems and Repubs? Not likely. You need to avoid those two groups like the plague. I will be carrying signs on my truck soon now that say NoDems, No Repubs, No Corporations. the only way we can reclaim what we want is to make those two parties inconsequential. Vote, yes, but for anybody BUT those two. It does not matter that an individual might be good. If he is in one of those parties, they will own him and sway his opinion and his vote.
I have not. I will begin, however. Today I will talk to several neighbors to try to set up a community meeting. I'm in.
"anyone out there in CD land doing any organizing in your locale?"
I have had some success getting even moderately conservative neighbors of mine to embrace some progressive and liberal causes. Not everyone here agrees to the idea of organizing and team confidence so this could vary from person to person. You are right, however, that we need to get out there and be more face to face more than just preaching to the choir. Whatever you do out there, do it with self confidence and try to build team spirit and confidence.
I am already solidly in it. We need millions more.
Log onto CNN.
Trylon
Right on. And when I tried to get my 'anti-war' organization to actually DO something, I was shunted off as 'too hostile' or 'seeking flamboyance', and told to buckle down and write letters. You touch on the major problem in america today, Steve. A severe and deplorable lack of balls.
I think you're wrong in your analysis. There's no "anti-war market" in the U.S. because the corporate media makes a huge effort to sanitize and propagandize the dirty wars we engage in. Cover the wars the way the war in Vietnam was covered and you have your "market". You're putting the cart before the horse. Look at the recent coverage of the 90,000+ leaked cables. Good media coverage would expose the lie we've been fed about how the wars have been progressing. Instead we get pundits blathering about how there's nothing new here; and all focus on the leaker or Wikileaks instead of the substance of the leak itself. Our system is corrupt. The information we're fed is designed to create a "pro-war market".
Your analysis smells of "free-market capitalism" worshiping right-wing talking points.
Give me a break. Organizers organize without the media. It's assumed you're going to at the least be ignored, and at the most attacked. But you organize anyway, because if you don't, you're a passive loser. If you actually think you need media cooperation to organize an opposition movement, then you've never organized an opposition movement. It's not the media's job to help you, in fact it's their job to not help you, and it's your job to not give a crap about that. That's what being an opposition organizer means. And that's why you do it face to face. You expose the lies yourself, one convert at a time. We know there are at least one million people in this country who know the truth. Imagine what things would be like if each of them took on a personal mission to add just five converts in one year, all coming in on the Amway plan to bring just five more. Not a lot of work to get just five apiece, no media, no money, massive results. There is no horse hear before which to put the cart. Just a cart, and you pull, push, and steer it yourself. The Underground Railroad didn't build its operation on favorable news stories.
And there's nothing wrong with me being honest about what motivates a profit-oriented media, also known as ratings-driven media, because that's what we have in this country. Until you provide something else, that's the only media we have, unless you count the pretense of what's called "public" radio in this country, which survives mostly on contributions from the giant corporations and the governments about which they're supposed to be exposing truth. It's easy to be dismissive about reality when you don't trouble yourself to present an alternative, and just as easy -- but twice as stupid -- to dismiss anyone who's trying to come up with media ideas as worshipping capitalism. One way to be sure of accomplishing nothing is to deny the present reality and make accusations against those who would work to game it a bit.
So, back to the original question, especially since you're so smart and can spot a capitalist stooge at twenty paces. What organizing are you doing? And assuming you've been doing a lot of it, which would put you in a position to be so critical and knowledgeable, what kind of results are you seeing?
I'm not sure if you're purposely ignoring the power of the Television in our lives, or if you are just ignorant. The Underground Railroad didn't have to contend with a 24/7 injection of pro-slavery propaganda beamed into every home every single day.
You believe the media is all driven by ratings? Really? Then you must believe that humanity just wants to be lied to, and that what we really desire is blissful ignorance. If we wanted the truth, we'd turn on the truth and the ratings would show the corporations that that is what we want... It doesn't say much about humanity.
This notion regarding ratings smacks of libertarian, free-market, capitalist bullshit. I contend that the truth is so deeply buried in a sea of corporate lies and muck, that the average American couldn't find if they wanted to. There is no real choice. The media has cornered the market; and the truth, while out there, must be actively sought out by truth-seekers who have the luxury of time. Most Americans don't have that luxury.
The Tea Party only looks like a movement because the media covers their little meetings and tiny protests like they're the new and hugely popular grassroots response to progressive over-reach. There would be no Tea party movement if the media gave them the coverage their numbers warrant. Conversely, the anti-war movement under Bush garnered little or no coverage despite huge protests month after month in city after city. No coverage, no movement.
Were you trying to come up with new "media ideas"? If so, I missed that bit.
And no, I don't do any "organizing" at all. Organizing for what exactly---the revolution? I will be there when it starts.
What I do is learn, and protest, and talk to people, and try, in my own small way, to open the eyes of those who are blinded by the propaganda that swirls around us all.
Imagine if all the workers in America had just said "I don't organize. When higher wages get offered, I'll be there." Rather than disproving any of my points, you prove them. You ARE them. You like to make conversation to whatever degree is convenient to you. No need to make special time in your day, or make assembling the small number of people you may be enlightening into a group with a program to spread the enlightenment further. And you have excuses for why every effort of organizing for progress that succeeded in the history of mankind had easier circumstances than we have now. What utter and complete horse manure. The problem is you, not the times in which you live.
The Underground Railroad had to contend with the messaging systems of its day. Government, church, fraternal organizations, newspapers, whatever -- their circumstances were worse than ours, because in their day slavery was a normal part of life in their areas, unquestioned. The risks of what they were doing were so far beyond ours it defies comparison -- penalties for crimes were much more severe than now.
Fires are worse now than they were 150 years ago. Buildings are bigger, built of weaker materials, and have contents made of artificial materials that release deadly gases when heated. We have horrific things long-ago firefighters couldn't have imagined -- cars crashing at 70 miles per hour. But organized volunteer fire departments solve every one of these problems as they develop. It's also far more difficult to get firefighters to the fires, because hardly anyone works close to small towns anymore, and are not as available to respond, but organized fire departments solve that problem, too. It's much harder to recruit new membership, because modern life gives people so many things to do with their time, and the training demands and hours have become so arduous. But organized volunteer departments solve this, too. Every single fire gets extinguished. Every single crash victim gets extricated and put on an ambulance. No matter how the world is different 100 years from now, those two things will still be happening, because firefighting is organized.
Organizing works. All the factions in our society that get their way, just like all that preceded us, win because they're organized. When circumstances change, they change, because they're organized. They examine changes as they come along, and address them. I am so sick of people who have the power to send a million people mail at a single keystroke saying "it's so much harder now." You spit on Joe Hill's grave. You spit on Martin Luther King's grave.
Read it and weep, CD readers. Look at the real reason everything sucks. People of supposedly good will not only doing nothing, but actually thinking they have good reason to do nothing. But at least this guy is honest about saying "however, if someone else does something, I'll step right up to benefit from it."
CNN isn't going to solve our problems. Nobody is going to create foundations to give us postage and ad money and funnel think-tank reports to embedded media hacks. That much is clear. We have to do it ourselves. Having said that, it will probably be mere moments before some jerk tells me that my belief in taking responsibility smacks of right-wing talking points. But if only 10% of people in America who consider themselves leftists or progressives would do just one simple thing -- unsubscribe from cable TV -- we'd collectively have more money available from that day then the Rockefellers, and more time then we can possibly imagine, and Time Warner and its advertisers would have that much less, and chances are we'd be able to start making enough headway to feel encouraged again.
Your infatuation with organizing is evident. Again, I ask---what are you organizing for? A progressive movement? I don't know what that means. What will your movement accomplish exactly? State what your organized movement is after. What message are you spreading?
Consider the last election for a moment. The Obama campaign was incredibly organized, and extremely effective. But to what end. Same old, same old. The Empire marches on, only now most "liberal democrats" think we've made progress. What happened to the anti-war movement with Obama in there? Gone. So, the change, and the organizing was actually counterproductive. And I submit that your amorphous call to organize is more of the same. Window dressing, designed to get progressive who feel frustrated by Obama, feeling "encouraged again".
What this country needs is a full blown revolution---with millions of people taking to the streets and staying there until the change is forced. These revolutions usually just happen, as a reaction to extreme government overreach---with little or no premeditated organization.
(And you misquote me, using quotation marks and all: "however, if someone else does something, I'll step right up to benefit from it." I never said that).
I will gladly put my body on the front lines of the revolution. You can quote that if you want...
I don't see any organizing in this Country. America is asleep, and barely cares about the wars, and what is going on. Frankly as an American, I am ashamed at how casual this Country is taking the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. If anyone in this Country still believes that these wars are to protect us, then they are either the least informed people on earth, or they choose to believe the lies. I do agree that the Media helps keep America relaxed about the war ,Hell they very rarely spend more than 2 minutes at a time on any war stories, and they usually just talk about the money, or a feel good troop story. Even without the Media you would think after 9 years of two wars that people would start to ask questions, and demand answers, but very few do.
If we do not start changing the way we do business "war" soon it will be too late, and the wheels of doom will start rolling. I am being a bit dramatic but you can't just keep doing what we are doing without concequence, so what ever that will be ...it will be.
Is it just me?
The leaked intelligence information out of Pakistan shows that the USA is giving money to the enemy through the ISI, a Pakistani intelligence agency.
This is the definition of treason. The USA is giving aid and comfort to the (so called) enemy.
Yet, no one is anymore outraged?
Vietnam was bad, but I don't believe that the USA was giving aid or comfort to the N.Vietnamese Army.
Good Grief.
There are plenty of people outraged, you just aren't finding too many here. There are too many people more interested in the sensationalism than the facts and effects.
I agree. It seems as clear as can be, as you say, the very definition of treason.
I think the whole shebang since 2001 is treasonous, starting with G.W. Bush and Co. who started "wars of aggression", the supreme war crime. Obama continues these ongoing crimes against humanity.
This is the heart of it. Two very important comments by Steve and Frank. I've been saying for some time now: the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad are the death of democracy. The MIC/MSM is out of control. We either disarm them, or we don't.
Consumption by the masses is the fuel of the empire, and desire for consumption (incessantly stimulated by Madison Avenue, tax-deductible "business expense") the means by which we bind ourselves to our masters. We need almost none of the crap we have, and our landfills certainly can't hold more of it, nor our atmosphere the by-products of its production. Cutting back drastically would definitely be a good start. But you need a hundred million people to do it at the same time for it to mean anything. That's why organizing is necessary.
Thanks Evan, you are a hero whistle blower now too.
The World has changed since World War Two, but the War Machine thinks it can keep up the illusion that it can win modern wars with lies half truths and propaganda.
It is kinda like any huge corporation's advertising for its products, and selling death is getting tricky now.
Keep shining your light of truth.
Evan,
I agree with you entirely, and I respect your courage in putting your personal knowledge and experience into the public domain. Let us know here if any serious reprisals befall you for your honesty. Maybe this history will interest some.
It's a tossup whether the worst product of World War Two was the Manhattan Project or the OSS under Gen. "Wild Bill" Donovan. The Manhattan Project released the atomic genie from the bottle. Two a-bombs were dropped 65 years ago.
The Office of Strategic Services gave birth to an enterprise called Psychological Warfare, later shortened to Psywar. A less flattering term is Mind Fucking the enemy. A huge number of PhD Psychologists gravitated to the OSS and they played an important role, mostly in the European Theater. After the two bombs were dropped in 1945, the Mind Fuckers were out of work - but only briefly. In the world of commerce, Vance Packard identified them in the 1950s as "The Hidden Persuaders". They also became "Organization Men".
Early during the Cold War, an ugly Rubicon was crossed. It was decided that the skills of Psychological Warfare should be used not just against foreign enemies but against fellow Americans. "Civilians" were not to be entrusted to making up their own minds about the dangers of Communism, especially black Americans - who were subjects of domestic imperialism - and starting to show signs of social rebellion.
A starting pistol was sounded after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, and the CIA launched domestic Psywar with "Deliver Us From Evil" ghost written for Thomas A. Dooley, MD. Many readers here have experienced epiphany, where their belief in American nobility crashed in flames for some reason. When the findings of the Church Committee (Sen. Frank Church of Idaho) were published by the Government Printing Office, I ordered a copy. Under oath, James J. Angleton and other spooks revealed that a campaign of Psywar propaganda against We the People had been in effect more than 15 years. Hundreds of books were written by hacks and disseminated through publishing firms under CIA domination. I gradually became able to identify many of them at academic libraries.
The Church Committee also revealed operation MHCHAOS, ordered by President Lyndon Johnson to "prove" that the antiwar movement was paid for, and infiltrated by, Communists. Legions of newly hired, young CIA spies enrolled in universities and colleges across the USA. They reported the names of campus "activists" and the families of these students soon began having their mail opened and their bank accounts monitored.
That's how bad it was 40 years ago, and -unbelievably -it has gotten worse each day since.
I wish Americans would memorize this quote from Chapter 2 of "1984": "Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull." -- George Orwell.
Trylon
Trylon
It was worse back then than you realize. Seek out a book called A Terrible Mistake by H. Albarelli. He is an independent investigative reporter and centers his book on the death of Frank Olson, a researcher at Fort Detrick in 1953 who was given LSD surreptitiously and took a header out a 10th floor window.
Albarelli also reveals that the CIA, who saw real potential in LSD as an offensive weapon of war, dosed a small French town's water supply and 500 citoyens went berserk. There were a few unfortunate deaths but...hey...you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
Just when you thought we had plumbed the depths of rot/inhumanity in the capitalist system somebody comes along and lowers the bar another notch. Ain't democracy wonderful?
We now live in a country where insane wars are not criminal, only reporting on them is. They're even going after the WIKI-Leaks founder, himself, now. 1984 is here folks, sorry to say.
"War is peace." Democracy left us some years back and fascism is becoming ever more entrenched. I doubt that I'll ever even bother with the charade of voting again. It only serves to lend validity to the whole corrupt, two-party-all-pro-war system.
But we can still protest at the polls, BillyD.
This is "Hands on" stuff.
By writing in or not voting for an issue or candidate it will universally count as a "no vote" which is a virtual "none of the above".
this is a protest if we do it to protest and they can't stop it and if enough of us do it, like
Arlo the Republican, we will start a movement.
Along with a voter boycott, as you expressed your feelings now, the election cycle might look different.
If we want to shake up the winner take all system, we need to play by our own rules.
Love Peace
PFC Manning is one soldier that I would thank for his service. If it was up to me, he would be given the Congressional Medal of Honor!
Crawl back under your bridge, troll.
db62959
Since you seem to be a firm supporter of the U.S. military you should realize that military personnel obey orders without question. That being the case you should realize that your duty is to crawl back under that bridge as you appear to lack the ability to realize that Bradley Manning, if he is the one who gave Wikileaks those cables which revealed that the U.S. has committed war crimes against the Afghan people, is a person who deserves the highest respect for not blindly and meekly obeying the orders that he was given by his less than benevolent military and the U.S. government.
Gareth Porter mentioned on Democracy Now! a few days ago that a more desirable way for the antiwar movement to manifest itself today as compared to the street protests that occurred during the Vietnam conflict is to have more soldiers and military insiders emulate what Bradley Manning did by exposing the secrets of the war machine to the outside world. As Porter and/or Julian Assange accurately pointed out, an organization like Wikileaks, which does not belong to a particular state and thus is nearly impossible to track down, may be the best way, as Assange noted, for those seeking justice to effectively crush the bastards.
Now is the time, friends, to put some of your money where your mouths are. A very brave man inside the empire's military machine made the moral decision to let some of the truth out. Now Bradley Manning needs your $$$ to help him have the best legal defense possible, not just some military Judge Advocate General's office assigned military lawyers, but civilian lawyers dedicated to seeing real justice. It costs money to find good and dedicated attorneys familiar with military law as well as international law so that a real challenge can be made at Manning's courts martial. So stop writing here and get out your checkbook or Google "Help Bradley Manning" for the latest information on folks helping raise funds for his defense.
With all due respect to Mr.Knappenberger and his service I disagree with him. PFC Mannig is traitor and a person without credibility. He joined an organization who put it's trust in him and he breached that trust. He signed a contract that he chose to ignore.
He doesn't even compare to Daniel Ellsberg who exausted all possibilties before he leaked the Pentagon Papers. I guess most people are too blind to see the difference.
PFC Manning dis this either for cash or for fame but most likely due to his immaturity. The official MSM story is gonna be that he did this out of the goodness of his heart and that he wanted to expose the evil of war.
Good luck for him actually finding job in the real world after his ordeal is over. He better polish his oratory and writing skills cuz that's about the only thing he'll be able to do. No sane organization would actually hire this guy. He might get lucky getting a gig with some non-profit liberal NGO but even then, they might wanna keep an eye on him cuz next thing you know he'll be sending their email archive to Sean Hannity.
Bradley Manning, like those who participated in the GI rebellion during the Vietnam War as well as those military personnel who are doing the same thing today, has more maturity than you can ever dream of possessing as Manning wished to expose, as did Ellsberg before him, the war crimes that the United States has been committing once again against yet another Third World country. Your claim that Manning does not even compare to Ellsberg is equally specious as Ellsberg has been on record as praising Manning for what he has done.
What this country needs is more patriots like Manning who, at great risk to himself, has been willing to show the world to what lengths the United States will go in order to carry out their nefarious plans in the Middle East.
"Ellsberg has been on record as praising Manning for what he has done"
I seem to have read that yesterday somewhere but I could not find the link any more so I did not mention it in my post. I can't believe Ellsberg would stoop so low as to praise this guy.
Look at the author of this article. he didn't agree with the war either but did not decide to start betraying the trust he was given. Did his duty, got out and then started his activism. Even if you don't agree with his views you gotta admit, his integrity is intact and deserves respect. PFC Manning on the other hand....
Your comments here make as little sense as your previous comments. You now believe that Evan Knappenberger is more worthy of praise than Bradley Manning because Knappenberger began his activism after he left the military. What you conveniently neglect to mention is that Knappenberger certainly does not share your views as he, as the title of his post clearly indicates, recognizes the heroism and, to borrow from your words, the integrity and respect of Manning's act.
I am also at a loss as to whose trust Manning allegedly betrayed. If you care one iota for the lives of those robots [that is, the soldiers] who are getting blown up for absolutely no justifiable reason whatsoever then you should realize that Manning is hoping that by exposing those documents to the world it would then hopefully increase the chances of bringing this idiotic occupation to an end and saving American lives, to say nothing of the many Afghans who are getting slaughtered by 500 lb. American bombs. Also, you apparently do not seem to realize that Manning's first loyalty, as evidenced by the oath that he [and I] had taken, is not to the President or to his fellow comrades but to a document called the U.S. Constitution.
It seems necessary to point out to you that those in the military are obligated under various sections of the UCMJ NOT to obey illegal orders specifically 809.ART.90 [20], which makes it clear, as Professor Lawrence Mosqueda of The Evergreen State College has demonstrated in an article in 2003 in CounterPunch, "that military personnel need to obey the 'lawful command of his superior officer', 891.ART.91 [2], the 'lawful order of a warrant officer'. 892.ART.91 [1] 'the lawful general order', 892.ART.92 [2] 'lawful order'. In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ."
Since these many cables that Manning had sent to Wikileaks revealed atrocities committed by the United States military, it then becomes apparent that Manning recognized that he had a duty to blow the whistle on what the U.S. military has done to those people and which has been sanctioned by the United States government.
Again, Evan Knappenberger and Daniel Ellsberg have certainly recognized the prudence of Manning's act as does every thinking person who resides not only in America but also the entire world. As I stated before, what this morally bankrupt country needs are more people like a Bradley Manning who are willing to risk imprisonment in order to do the right thing by, as Julian Assange noted, crushing the bastards.
"I am also at a loss as to whose trust Manning allegedly betrayed"
The military trained him and entrusted him with a responsibility. PFCMannig chose to betray that. I'm not even sure why a 22 year old kid is doing in MI. Admission to that specialty should only be allowed after a min 3 years of service. But i guess the US Army eager for warm bodies to fill all positions.
"those in the military are obligated under various sections of the UCMJ NOT to obey illegal orders specifically 809.ART.90 [20],"
So in the case of PFC Manning which illegal and unconstutitional order did he disobey?
"What you conveniently neglect to mention is that Knappenberger certainly does not share your views as he"
I really don't have problem with that. My respect goes to Mr.Knappenberger. He did his duty and fulfilled hs obligations to the people who trusted him. At such time his contract was over he expressed personal views and opinions.
"If you care one iota for the lives of those robots "
"as evidenced by the oath that he [and I] had taken,"
As someone who claimes to have served you really don't seem to think too much of your former brothers in arms. Pity. I thought American veterans were like a brotherhood. I seem to have been mistaken.
Yes, they are a brotherhood, but not including your thinking.
The brotherhood is not disregarding the service Manning has given to this Nation. We are pawns in a war MIS and Big Money have created. The brotherhood is part of the pawns used in this dirty business and veterans increasingly realize this madness of this game.
Any fight against evil causes sacrifice. War and oppression is a dirty business and loss of life is always regrettable.
The sheer number of incidences is given by this war and not by the number included in the leak. The mind-boggling number of incidences puts a whole new weight on our understanding, well at least on mine. I can see why people compare it with the Vietnam paper leak.
It stands to hope that all who loose their live have not died in vain if it is to end/shorten (this) war. It is a concerted interest of the MIC and Big Money, driving politics and policies, to instigate war. The people who die (soldiers, agents, partisans, insurgents and civilians) are pawns in this business. Only increased public awareness can change this system. It looks like the leaks are part of this process.
Chameleon, did you serve?
In two different armies. Infantry rifleman and, (coincidence?) intel operator.
For full disclosure, none of them was the US Army. Contrary to what most people think they do not accept foreigners that are not LPRs (greencard) even if you are already trained and experienced. At least they didn't before 2000.
I am unclear as to why you are confused. Manning realized that the Afghan War [or, more correctly, the invasion and occupation] was and still is illegal because he came to the realization that neither the Taliban nor the Afghan people were and or are now a threat to anyone in these United States. As I attempted to explain before, since the documents that Manning sent to Wikileaks clearly reveals that war crimes have been committed [which then violate the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, and the Nuremberg Principles, all treaties which, since the United States have signed, they have a duty to obey], he then should be lauded for attempting to bring to the attention of the world the war crimes that the alleged democracy of the United States has committed against the Afghans.
Regarding your last comment you are absolutely correct. I do not think very highly of those in the military who blindly and meekly go along with the program. As I said in another comment what the military brass most fears are those in the military who dare to think for themselves such as a Bradley Manning or an Ehren Watada or a Camilio Mejia or those in the IVAW or the members of the military who took part in the GI rebellion during the Vietnam War. If you are in the dark about that last example then I strongly suggest that you see the powerful documentary Sir! No Sir! which totally backs up that belief. You seem to believe that because I had been in the military then I am automatically going to align myself with those who are in the military today. That is not going to happen and nor, I suspect, will it probably ever happen since I most certainly believe that Brecht was correct when he said that those in the military have a right to think for themselves. And when those like a Bradley Manning finally reach an epiphany then their actions should be endlessly praised. Those who say NO to American imperialism should have parades given in their honor and have streets named after them in order for Americans to realize who the true heroes of this country truly are.
Again, those soldiers are the ones whom I respect and not the robots who dutifully carry out the orders that they are given. Those are the ones whom I have an affinity for as they deserve the highest respect for speaking out against American imperialism. The robots in the military today should take heed of the words of a former Green Beret [yes, that is correct, a Green Beret] named Donald Duncan who noted in Sir! No Sir! that:
"I was doing it right but I wasn't doing right."
"Wikileaks clearly reveals that war crimes have been committed [which then violate the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, and the Nuremberg Principles, all treaties which, since the United States have signed, they have a duty to obey"
I was actually waiting for someone to sift thru he docs and find the ones detailing war crimes. I read tru a few of them, mostly the ones with the blue dot (civilian casulaties). No joy yet from anyone else. I bet a lot of people are going thru these with a fine tooth comb. So unless you have the links to the wikileaks docs that actually show without a doubt that a war crime has been coomitted i suggest you stay in a holding pattern and not make accuastions you can't back up.
You really should try not to engage in such earnest flag waving as that seems to be preventing you from keeping up with the atrocities that the United States has been continually committing in the Middle East. Alexander Cockburn points out on his web site CounterPunch that:
These documents reveal the "willful, casual slaughter of civilians by coalition personnel, with ensuing cover-ups." Cockburn also notes that "there are logs showing, among other things, that Task Force 373, an undisclosed 'black' unit of special forces had been hunting down targets for death or detention without trial. The logs reveal that Task Force 373 simply killed their targets without attempting to capture. It shows that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women, and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path."
As Cockburn notes in his article, whenever Julian Assange would point out in interviews in U.S. programs that "the US military program had been-is still-running a death squad along the model of the Phoenix Program [for those too young to remember, this is the infamous activity that the United States carried out with such lethal results during the Vietnam War], his interviewers would simply change the subject." The British newspaper The Guardian has also quoted extensively from the documents that it has received from Julian Assange which is where Cockburn has, in all likelihood, obtained his information and analysis.
You are simply an example of what so many Americans believe and that is that you apparently cannot possibly conceive that the United States, which is supposedly the greatest country in the world, can ever be the bad guys and that they could have committed war crimes. I suggest that it is long past the point that you open your eyes by acknowledging that the U.S. is simply picking up where it left off in Vietnam where it indiscriminately killed so many Vietnamese with its bullets, bombs, Agent Orange and napalm. You will notice that the Obama administration, while trying to claim that these documents supposedly are a breach of national security, have never denied their authenticity. But then what these documents are revealing now should not be considered all that new since it has been known for quite some time that the United States has been ripping apart innocent Afghan civilians by dropping 500 lb. bombs on them at their wedding parties and funerals.
I suggest that you may wish to peddle your neoconservative patriotic drivel somewhere else as most of the people here are not buying your apologia for American brutality against the people of the Middle East.
"These documents reveal the "willful, casual slaughter of civilians by coalition personnel, with ensuing cover-ups." "
Now if that's what Alexander Cockburn it must be true. But i guess he neglected to point out the exact documents that prove that. i mean come on, in 92,000 pages there must be at least one that describes the "willful, casual slaughter of civilians by coalition personnel" as the good Mr. Cockburn points out.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: And so, what it comes down, to me, is—and I say throwing caution to the winds here—is that what I’ve heard so far of Assange and Manning—and I haven’t met either of them—is that they are two new heroes of mine, along with Thomas Drake. I’ve got a number of heroes, and they’ve—including Randy Kehler and, for that matter, Glenn Greenwald, who’s on this show, and a number of others. So I believe their action is exemplary. I hope others will follow it. For forty years I’ve hoped that someone would put out information on the scale that I did, but in a more timely way than I did, before I chose to do it in my time. And Manning would be the first person in forty years to have done that, if it is true that he’s put out a great raft of cables, which he regards as criminal. And I give him—I’m very gratified, if that’s the case. And I hope he’s not the last.
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http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/17/wikileaks_whistleblowers
Actually he UPHELD his oath of service by leaking the few documents that he did. It is the DUTY of every soldier to expose lies and crimes within the military. THAT is why he is a hero to real warriors both past and present. Of course we don't expect right wing anti-American scum that have never served to understand that though.
I really hope you're not in the military any more.
Manning is a traitor and should be treated as such. These are not the Pentagon Papers. It's some 22 year old immature kid entrusted with too much responsibility. He cracked under stress. He's probably not even aware of what he's done.
I repeat myself:
So far the US is taking action against the leakers. Imagine the impact if the Nuremberg hearings were against those who leaked Nazi war crimes while ignoring the war crimes.