Throughout 2002 and early 2003, the American people, still shell-shocked by 9/11, were subjected to virtually endless news stories, print and television, documenting Saddam Hussein’s long trail of tyrannical evils. One of the more chilling Saddam clips that kept surfacing during that jingoistic period was the black and white 1979 Baath Party film of Hussein consolidating his powers. Coolly sitting on stage in an auditorium filled with Baath Party members – and smoking a Cohiba – Saddam called out the dissidents in the bunch, who were then promptly whisked away by Saddam’s thugs to face their final moments under the megalomaniac’s regime.
Some thirty years later, a 22-year-old Oklahoma-born U.S. soldier would reportedly witness another quashing of Iraqi political dissidents. According to published accounts of e-mail correspondence, the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower – most widely known as Bradley, but who came out as transgender to former hacker Adrian Lamo, asking to be called Breanna and signaling a desire to transition to a female identity – was asked by a commanding officer to investigate the jailing of 15 Iraqi political dissidents at the hands of the Iraqi Federal Police. When Manning told the commanding officer that the detainees were merely publishing scholarly criticism of their corrupt prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, the U.S. Army officer not only did not want to hear it, but also told Manning to help the Iraqi Federal Police round up more dissidents for jailing.
It was that demand from the commanding officer that “got” to Pfc. Manning the most and, according to now-published e-mails, made Manning “rethink the world more than anything.”
Though Manning has been treated like a war criminal by the U.S. military, and though the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers (R-MI), called for Manning’s execution, it is the crimes committed during war that prompted Manning to engage in the greatest act of whistle-blowing on U.S. war corruption since Daniel Ellsberg went public with the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg is now one of Manning’s most vocal supporters.
In the now infamous “Collateral Murder” video, one of the first releases from the WikiLeaks trove apparently provided by Manning, one of the U.S. soldiers can be heard saying, “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards.” The “dead bastards,” it should be noted, were eleven noncombatants, including two Reuters employees covering the war. Needless to say, such bloodlust does not reflect the moral consciousness of the vast majority of our service members. Indeed, one of the U.S. soldiers in the Collateral Murder video, former Army specialist Ethan McCord – a true hero who was carrying wounded children away from the scene of carnage – has come out in support of Manning.
Nonetheless, the U.S. military’s top brass, and their echo chamber in Congress, would like nothing more than for average Americans to believe that Manning is but a ruthless sociopath who must be removed from society. Nothing could be further from the truth: Manning shows signs of having a highly evolved ethical consciousness, even at a young 24 years of age. Mix a highly evolved ethical consciousness with an extreme rebel psyche, which Manning no doubt has, and what you get is a classic whistleblower, not a sociopath.
By providing a bay window for the American people into the ugly realities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Manning has given us an opportunity to reform and evolve a U.S. military culture into one that prizes the sanctity of all human life – not one that merely seeks to minimize “collateral damage.”
Seeking such pro-human life military reforms is our fundamental right as citizens of a free republic.
It ought to be clear by now that what the Iraq War proponents – in government, media, and the think tank world – never seemed to grasp was how they too were fooled by Saddam Hussein – and not just on the non-existent stockpile of WMDs. Much like the vast majority of those Baath Party members who obediently sat in their seats as their countrymen were taken off to be executed, the Iraq War proponents fell for the lie that simply by placing himself in the center of the stage in that auditorium, Saddam somehow made himself center stage in the struggle between good and evil. Nothing could be further from reality.
The moment a person begins to fear evil is the moment he or she will begin to carry out the will of evil, literally becoming evil’s appendage. In that black and white Baath Party film from 1979 it is the audience of Baath Party members who are center stage in the struggle between good and evil, not Saddam. They lived in fear of Saddam, and consequently they became an appendage of his evil regime.
Manning, at 24 years of age, has already endured great suffering in life. For Manning chose not to live in fear of evil and understood, internally, what the acquiescent Baath Party members, and later the Iraq War proponents never did: It is never the thugs, bullies and mass killers of this world who are center stage in the struggle between good and evil.
It’s the rest of us.
Timothy Villareal is a Miami-based writer. He blogs at http://timothyvillareal.wordpress.com
Look at the difference between the handling of the Mai Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and what has happened to Manning. During the first, the perpetrator of violence was punished while in the second incident, the whistle-blower is being punished. During the past 30 some years our culture has changed: increased inequality and poverty, violent militarized police, a war on drug dealers and users – many of whom are alienated from society or have no chance to find a decent job, a third-rate educational system, growing physical and emotional violence – the list goes on. We have proclaimed a war against evil – an evil we project to others – while overlooking our own evil. Both Israel and the US have to revise our treatment of the “others” whom we persecute. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. – Pogo
Manning has a “highly evolved ethical consciousness”. Therein lies the real issue. We no
longer seem to have this. Listen to the vitriol coming from some of our government officials,
our citizens, even our religious leaders who spread hate against the “other” on a daily basis
So it isn’t hard to imagine how our military is able to indoctrinate young men and women
to treat the enemy as sub human.
Many thanks for this, Timothy. I wish there were a broader movement and understanding of Manning’s heroism. He deserves a medal, not the terrible treatment by the military. As a further comment, and a response also to Jeanne’s comparison to My Lai, in that case, as in all cases when someone is punished in the military or the police, it is the lower ranking persons who are punished. Never the real perpetrators who call the shots. These things go almost all the way to the top, and while they attempt to cover them up with bravado and BS; if necessary they will sacrifice a sergeant or two, maybe at worst a Lieutenant, as with Vietnam. Never the Colonels, Generals, or Cheney.
Does anyone really know what the motives of 24 year old army clerk was?
“highly evolved ethical consciousness”.
who d you know this. the cynic me in says that he did it for money from Assange. Please substantiate that this was not so. What he do was merely pass unedited documents from a secret file to Assange. he has no idea if he endangered anyone of our servicemen in the field. If serviceman died as a direct result of this unedited release, then there is blood on his hands.
Manning broke military code that he swore to uphold when he signed up. Few make this move for lofty reasons. The US military may have committed some mis-steps but Manning was not in a position to judge. He may have revealed this mis-steps, but he also cost lives. The Taliban love when these cations take place. I am sure their command paged through it and planned their actions accordingly. No matter what you think act actions of the US military, the Taliban are still the bad guys. i ams use there is no one who would disagree.
This traitor Manning is a contemptuous cowardly , easily co-opted villain. He betrayed his country, and her allies, many of whom were subsequently “collateral damage” for a profiteering wannabe celebrity creep named Julian Assange, who is a complete schmuck.
To alibi this lying lily-livered jerk who delivered classified information to an enemy of our nation, which is already staggering under the weight of its own mistakes, but certainly needs MORE ethical and trustworthy behavior in its military and buraeucratic ranks, not less, is a very misguided thing to do.
We need to stop the moral relativizing and start waking up to the atrocities that are manufactured when there are no limits and little honor in the young people we are raising to be cheaters, liars and opportunistic sell outs to the worst form of manipulative utilitarianism.
We need to change the system by living UP to values that sustain positive social change, not reinforce them.
And may i remind you that all the liberals who have money in the stock market and gamble on Wall Street with gusto, did not come together to fight the horrible murder, mayhem and Blackhawk and other profligate money lining misbegotten government sanctioned carpetbaggers who looted our nation for TRILLIONS until they were faced with funding Healthcare and TWO wars (only one of which, Afghanistan, was legitimate.)
Funny how a solid hit ti the pocketbook produces a whole slew of hypocritical sudden peace at any cost niks.
I’ve watched the situation with Private Manning with great interest, partly because of my own experiences in the military as an intelligence analyst. Revealing classified information is one of the most serious acts a member of the armed forces can take and those who have clearances know what will happen to them if they do so and are caught.
Being ordered to do things that you believe are immoral, or more specifically, that you believe in your heart are illegal, or that you believe can cause grave harm to others, puts you in a very difficult bind. You can disobey or take other steps to subvert the situation, but you do so in a great part at your own risk. I was taught though, that that risk was worth taking if you truly believed you were in the right and if you had taken all possible steps to right the situation within the system.
Private Manning’s story has not been adequately told, and may not be adequately told until he has the benefit of a trial. His first judges will be fellow soldiers. My hope is that the trial is not sealed, kept secret from the public, because of the classified nature of some of his work. The more secret the government keeps things the less the public will trust the outcome.
Here’s the problem. When a member of the military disobeys a direct order, reveals classified information, or commits other acts that are in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he must believe in his heart that he is doing the right thing for the right reasons and that the good that will come of his actions will outweigh whatever bad might result. He also has to, I think, believe that he has exhausted all of his options in taking his concerns up the chain of command. He also has to have the humility to know that if his judgement was flawed, he will be punished and be willing to accept that punishment.
Again, these are things that a fair trial will hopefully reveal. Even with a fair trial, Private Manning may (and based on the little we know so far, probably will) be found guilty by a court martial. If enough information is revealed, though, that gives the court of public opinion enough fodder to say that Manning was morally correct in what he did, he eventually will find himself free.
What I think we the people should demand is, if Private Manning’s lawyers and he agree, a speedy and public court martial, with him given the opportunity to tell his full story.