Manning’s case has become a waning sideshow, kept alive only at the periphery of our mainstream attention span by a very vocal support network, and not surprisingly, the foreign audience. But as Madar points out, "ignorance is not just a matter of information supply, but of demand." Today’s Americans care less about "the truth," much preferring celluloid rebels and the formulaic black and white tension of The Lorax and The Hunger Games to the ethical and moral complexities associated with flesh ’n blood risk takers and truth-seekers. "The paucity of public-spirited citizens speaks poorly of American rebelliousness," writes Madar.Kelley B. Vlahos, “The Passion of Bradley Manning”
Bradley Manning is being “crucified” for our sins.
For the sins of us American citizens, many of us of limited courage, conscience and/or consciousness.
He is also being persecuted -- the torturous “killing of the messenger” -- for the appalling and vast sins of the amoral rulers of this country, who are responsible for gratuitous (although they don’t consider them gratuitous if there are corporate profits involved) massive deaths and massive suffering of human beings around the globe.
The powers that be who abandoned honor and morality long ago. The ones who think that might not only makes “right” but also should protect them from any millisecond of “embarrassment” or “unease” on being called on their corrupt cronyism, narcissism, violence, venality, and so often grotesque incompetence.
They are making an example of Manning for all potential whistleblowers. To make any people of conscience think twice before calling out war criminal behaviors perpetrated by the United States. Obama, still skating on image, was our chance to turn around the fascism of the Bush regime. Instead Obama, or “Obagman” as he was bitterly referred to by some commenter on another site and I find no argument, has done all he can to lock in fascism and oligarchical oppression in the United States forever. The new American way. The new world order. A race to the bottom. Institutionalized evil.
Bradley Manning has allegedly supplied evidence that American foreign policy rulers are war criminals. Supplied a detailed account of the vast scope and nature of this war criminality. In his young life, Manning enlisted to serve his country at the risk of losing his life, and now, apparently, has risked his life to communicate the criminality of the military culture he had entrusted his life to.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other criminal foreign policy colluders still easily receive massive rewards in book and speaking deals. Ironically, at the same time they dare not travel abroad, because even though they are protected by fellow war criminals in this country and the mass denial of many of the citizenry, thanks to the craven corporate media, authorities among the international community have no problem recognizing their enormous guilt in defying international and moral law.
The war criminals in charge presently, including and especially Obama, and the corporate press have demonized Manning as a criminal. He broke the military code of discipline and confidentiality. The fact that he did it to uphold the U.S. Constitution and reveal gross war criminality and corruption is ignored in Obama’s accountability-free world for real perpetrators. There is the glaring double standard dooming whistleblowers. There is always the “war on terror” post 9/11 blank check Obama and his regime, as the Bush regime, cash in on to shove aside citizen protections of due process for arbitrarily deemed “extenuating, extrajudicial” circumstances. Bald, bold and shameless they are. Disclosing criminal behavior in a non-criminal world would not be a crime. Where is the accountability for such atrocities as U.S. death squads, black site torture, indefinite detentions, drone incineration attacks on innocent civilians, the use of white phosphorous and depleted uranium weapons? Ray McGovern in a recent blog declared that if this were a “just world,” Bradley Manning would be offered the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead he is facing a death sentence.
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning FINALLY will appear before a judge for his court-martial proceedings this month, almost two years since the beginning of his inhumane incarceration. Medea Benjamin and Mike Davis have written on Manning’s treatment during that period:
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has decided to make Manning's pre-trial existence as torturous as possible, holding him in solitary confinement 23 hours a day since his arrest 10 months ago – treatment that the group Psychologists for Social Responsibility notes is, “at the very least, a form of cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment in violation of U.S. law.”
snip
In addition to the horror of long-term solitary confinement, Manning is barred from exercising in his cell and is denied bed sheets and a pillow. And every five minutes, he must respond in the affirmative when asked by a guard if he's “okay.”
snip
And it gets worse. On his blog, Manning's military lawyer, Lt. Col. David Coombs, reveals that his client is now being stripped of his clothing at night, left naked under careful surveillance for seven hours. When the 5:00 am wake-up call comes, he's then “forced to stand naked at the front of the cell.”
Manning, 24, faces 22 charges, including "aiding the enemy" and violating the 1917 Espionage Act, for allegedly transferring more than 700,000 classified and sensitive government documents from a ostensibly secure Department of Defense/State Department network to WikiLeaks, including what we know now as the Iraq War logs, the Afghan War logs, and the State Department diplomatic cables. He has been incarcerated since May 2010, and may never see the light a day again if the prosecution has its way.
Chris Floyd considers who the ACTUAL “enemy” is.
But again, who is the "enemy"? You are the enemy -- if you speak a truth that the government does not want you to reveal. (Of course, if you are an approved and coddled courtier, an eager, scurrying scribe like Bob Woodward, for example, you can reveal all the most secret "classified material" that you like, as long as it comes from savvy insiders "authorized" to praise their bosses and make their rivals look bad.) If you speak this unwanted truth, the government, the president -- the cool, savvy, modern, hip, educated progressive president -- can throw you in jail, subject you to torture, deprive you of sleep, and finally strip you naked in front of cameras to break you down and humiliate you in their efforts to dehumanize you, to grind you down into a piece of meat.
Fred Branfman considers that the real enemy may be the citizenry:
Both the Wikileaks Iraqi and Afghan War Logs, in short, have revealed that the entire U.S. Executive is a "vast lying machine", as journalist David Halberstam described the U.S. military in his affadavit for the CBS vs. Westmoreland trial. It must be understood that “truth” vs. “lies” is not even an operational category within the Executive Branch or military.
The purpose of communicating with the public is not to provide them with truthful information but rather to advance “the mission”. People who communicate with the public obtain their jobs and are promoted on the basis of their ability to mislead, deceive, “spin” and lie. There is no recorded case where Executive Branch officials have been rewarded for telling the truth to the American people, and many where they have been punished or lost their jobs for doing so. And nothing so epitomizes the degradation of democracy in America that the fact the public expects Executive Branch officials to lie to them, and that mass media journalists even betray their profession by defending Executive secrecy and excoriating those who reveal their lies like Julian Assange.
Assume the ostrich stance, America, or face down horror. We not only must fear the hard-knuckle knocking of the FBI or whomever on our doors but maybe the newest drones the size of insects bearing down on us. And multi-dimensional torture onto serious people of conscience. The new American normal. If you disclose criminality, in this case MASSIVE criminality, by breaking the code of confidentiality of the criminals since the criminals are so shamelessly and thoroughly in charge they then can torture you, threaten with the death penalty or a life time of incarceration, HELLISH incarceration.
The military industrial security complex killing machine is sucking up as of the Fall of 2011 $719 billion of tax dollars which is crippling the welfare of US citizens, reducing jobs, preventing repairs of infrastructure, as well as enabling massive death and destruction to innocent people abroad as well as our own young soldiers all for corporate agendas.
For average Americans to hear that their country is corrupt, their amiable president is corrupt, their military is corrupt is repelling. The larger the scope of atrocity the thicker the walls of the bubble of denial. After 8 years of Bush, the cruelty of an Obama who offered change and continued on, spinning appearance, is heart and mind-numbing. Gaslighting. Crazymaking. Cruel. Dividing up and conquering the Democratic community. “Confuse” means “fused” “with”.
Remember when you were in your early twenties? There was a magnificent courage back then as one's identity broke forth into authentic adulthood. A vast potential then for soaring grandiosity as well as a cavernous vacuum for shame and self doubt. Bradley Manning is the tender age of 24. He enlisted in the army to serve his country. Out of idealism, courage and a spirit of adventure? He discovered the horror of mass indecency and illegality and he leaked the evidence. Massive evidence of the American lying war machine. Of a perverted military culture. He risked his welfare for truth.
Now he is being tortured and persecuted intensely and sadistically. A warning for the people of conscience of America. A litmus test for the morality or lack thereof of our President and our nation. A titillation for the authoritarian-following jingoists. Oh, and an additional bonus for homophobic war criminals and friends of war criminals and a hyper-masculine zero-tolerance (for peace mongering) military culture of trickle down sadism: the young man happens to be gay.
[cross-posted on correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
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Good God! I had no idea he was kept in solitary for 23 hours a day--all for speaking the truth. Freedom isn't free and there isn't much justice in our society at all, is there, Libby?
He's being made an example for anyone in uniform who might feel the need to release classified documents... unfortunately there's little that can be done for him.
Thanks, Erica, for commenting. :)
Yes, solitary is a form of torture, can lead to psychosis when sustained.
AND along with everything else, the additional sexual torture. In the guise of taking away his clothes so he wouldn't commit suicide using them (even his underwear, when he was under non-stop camera surveillance and doctors asserted he was NOT suicidal) shows exactly the level of evil and sadism of the military culture, cued by an Obama who defended that nothing inappropriate was done to Manning (MASSIVE INSULTING BULLSHIT as the vast number of citizens yawn in indifference or ignore the entire matter).
The citizenry let BIG MEDIA deflect from the horrors that Manning revealed (with NO PROSECUTIONS OF PROOF OF MURDERS OF CIVILIANS) to DEMONIZING MANNING. Other countries are reading the disclosures. Americans can't be inconvenienced to acknowledge their own role as accessories to global genocide.
Abu Ghraib got our attention for a NY minute, I guess, but nakedness as torture no problem for the consciences of Americans, most who could care less. Imagine being locked up and then having to strip naked and stay naked for 7 hours, not even allowed pillow or blankets at night, and having to stand in forced attention that way before your uniformed guards when you got to see them during your non-solitary hour once a day, though YOU are watched 24/7. No privacy in your mind-altering isolation.
And this is what we even know about. What vulnerability. What savage institutionalized torture defended by an administration that should have prosecuted the Bush torture regime, but instead refined its own scheme and talk to the hand defensiveness to anyone who has issues with it. Once again, Obama took the policy of Bush and extended them onto Americans. Like assassination. Like "institutional" torture, he won't acknowledge as torture. Orwellian.
You know, I don't understand why gay people aren't promoting Manning as THEIR hero. I'm proud of him as a fellow American.
Instead of focusing so hard on gays serving in the military, they had a gay man in the service willing to take on the role of conscience rather than cannon fodder!!!
best, libby
Yes, solitary is a form of torture, can lead to psychosis when sustained.
AND along with everything else, the additional sexual torture. In the guise of taking away his clothes so he wouldn't commit suicide using them (even his underwear, when he was under non-stop camera surveillance and doctors asserted he was NOT suicidal) shows exactly the level of evil and sadism of the military culture, cued by an Obama who defended that nothing inappropriate was done to Manning (MASSIVE INSULTING BULLSHIT as the vast number of citizens yawn in indifference or ignore the entire matter).
The citizenry let BIG MEDIA deflect from the horrors that Manning revealed (with NO PROSECUTIONS OF PROOF OF MURDERS OF CIVILIANS) to DEMONIZING MANNING. Other countries are reading the disclosures. Americans can't be inconvenienced to acknowledge their own role as accessories to global genocide.
Abu Ghraib got our attention for a NY minute, I guess, but nakedness as torture no problem for the consciences of Americans, most who could care less. Imagine being locked up and then having to strip naked and stay naked for 7 hours, not even allowed pillow or blankets at night, and having to stand in forced attention that way before your uniformed guards when you got to see them during your non-solitary hour once a day, though YOU are watched 24/7. No privacy in your mind-altering isolation.
And this is what we even know about. What vulnerability. What savage institutionalized torture defended by an administration that should have prosecuted the Bush torture regime, but instead refined its own scheme and talk to the hand defensiveness to anyone who has issues with it. Once again, Obama took the policy of Bush and extended them onto Americans. Like assassination. Like "institutional" torture, he won't acknowledge as torture. Orwellian.
You know, I don't understand why gay people aren't promoting Manning as THEIR hero. I'm proud of him as a fellow American.
Instead of focusing so hard on gays serving in the military, they had a gay man in the service willing to take on the role of conscience rather than cannon fodder!!!
best, libby
thanks, jmac, for commenting, though your statement "unfortunately there's little that can be done for him." makes me crazed with frustration and anger at the passivity of the citizenry that COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS IF THEY GAVE A SERIOUS SH*T!!!!
I saw Letterman this week talking to Olbermann and I forget the context, but I heard Dave say something about taking the "high road" and then quickly corrected himself, chuckling, and said, "well, NO ONE takes the high road, any more."
Manning did and still does. He illuminates the low roads, if anyone is awake and moral enough to grasp it. He is facing the death penalty for doing that.
BIG YAWN IN AMERICA!!!
I am so ashamed of this country -- our amoral administration and our ostrich citizenry!!!! Obama, the telfon fascist. And we as citizens are surpassing the role of the "good Germans" of WWII in our amoral passivity.
imHo
best, libby
I saw Letterman this week talking to Olbermann and I forget the context, but I heard Dave say something about taking the "high road" and then quickly corrected himself, chuckling, and said, "well, NO ONE takes the high road, any more."
Manning did and still does. He illuminates the low roads, if anyone is awake and moral enough to grasp it. He is facing the death penalty for doing that.
BIG YAWN IN AMERICA!!!
I am so ashamed of this country -- our amoral administration and our ostrich citizenry!!!! Obama, the telfon fascist. And we as citizens are surpassing the role of the "good Germans" of WWII in our amoral passivity.
imHo
best, libby
Its difficult for me to work up any real emotion for Manning, Libby. When did he join the army four or five years ago? By then everybody but the dumbest hayseed spawn of the dumbest hayseed FOX addict knew they were joining as a mercenary. He entered the military with the full understanding that he was being paid and paid quite well to fight the empires wars. If he didn’t know that then I would consider him to stupid to even be put in a uniform, let alone given a security clearance. My impression of him is that he thought this spy thing was all going to be great fun and Julian Assange reinforced those expectations. I wouldn’t go trying to make Manning into a hero. He is the very last guy I would ever want to have in a fox hole with me. And while I share your virulent hatred for the empire I don’t begrudge them the right to discipline their own soldiers. Its not like he refused an order to fire on American citizens. If that were the case then the Assata Shakur solution would be in effect and we as Americans would be obligated to pull it off.
obongo is a constitutional scolar only in the sense that he feels he can interpret it and/or write it as he sees fit.
His "justice" department makes john mitchell and john ashcroft seem like paragons of virtue.
-R-
His "justice" department makes john mitchell and john ashcroft seem like paragons of virtue.
-R-
Obnoxious Amerika.......
The "Land of The Free & Home of The Brave"
Bringing "freedom" to the world!
(We'll be free to do as we please and you'll be free to do as we tell you.)
Is it any wonder that Amerikan style "democracy" has to be forced upon people at the point of a gun?
"IS THIS REALLY THE BEST THAT WE CAN DO?"
The "Land of The Free & Home of The Brave"
Bringing "freedom" to the world!
(We'll be free to do as we please and you'll be free to do as we tell you.)
Is it any wonder that Amerikan style "democracy" has to be forced upon people at the point of a gun?
"IS THIS REALLY THE BEST THAT WE CAN DO?"
my, for such an invincible system, America, their military, and capitalism all have to persecute and torture one little military guy who snuck a data stick out of bounds. sounds like a pretty delicate little operation to me. yeah.
Now that's the stuff, Libby. The idea that we are embarrassingly superficial, we don't care about the truth, we worship the status quo, and all we want to hear is that we are the best is not that novel, yet sadly true. Madar admirably describes our culture accurately.
Coming here and reading your posts has been great for my general health and sanity, and for that I thank you much. I wish someday more Americans not only read this, but also understand how crucial are the lessons drawn from it. Thank you also for your killer links. Excellent piece, a must read. R
Coming here and reading your posts has been great for my general health and sanity, and for that I thank you much. I wish someday more Americans not only read this, but also understand how crucial are the lessons drawn from it. Thank you also for your killer links. Excellent piece, a must read. R
I followed Bradley Manning for awhile but it's too heartbreaking and no one cares enough to leave the minutiae of shopping or reality TV. I'm glad I learned how worthless I was a long time ago when I tried small acts of whistleblowing in the workplace. No one else stands behind you and you're screwed for doing the right thing. Acts of conscience don't pay.
"For the sins of us American citizens, many of us of limited courage, conscience and/or consciousness." An elegant way to say bovine. Many bulging eyed cows watching their own kids go off to slaughter and be slaughtered as they chew their cuds and mindlessly trample through life.
Many will yawn as more and more true and ugly stories unfold. Until the suffering is personal, it's hard to yawn and scream at once. When it's personal for enough people then justice will matter. When you're spoiled, you don't know what you've got until you've lost it.
"For the sins of us American citizens, many of us of limited courage, conscience and/or consciousness." An elegant way to say bovine. Many bulging eyed cows watching their own kids go off to slaughter and be slaughtered as they chew their cuds and mindlessly trample through life.
Many will yawn as more and more true and ugly stories unfold. Until the suffering is personal, it's hard to yawn and scream at once. When it's personal for enough people then justice will matter. When you're spoiled, you don't know what you've got until you've lost it.
@Seer,
What you say is probably true. Bradley knew the consequences and made his choice.
That, however, is NOT the point.
The point is that those who help to protect society by keeping the citizens informed of the actions of those who are abusing it SHOULD NOT be subject to such consequences in the first place.
While every member of any organization owes a certain allegiance to that organization, every citizen's FIRST allegiance is to his fellow citizens. Organizations that act against the better interests of the society need to be made to understand that society will not tolerate such actions when we discover them.
It is vital to discovering such actions that those who are in a position to know of them be welcomed when they come to us to present information on the illegal and improper actions of the organization. That, in turn, means that society has an obligation to protect them from any retaliation or penalty meted out by those organizations.
In my (not so) humble opinion, those who do come forward to inform society are heroes of national proportions. They ought to "suffer" only the consequences of great respect and admiration.
.
What you say is probably true. Bradley knew the consequences and made his choice.
That, however, is NOT the point.
The point is that those who help to protect society by keeping the citizens informed of the actions of those who are abusing it SHOULD NOT be subject to such consequences in the first place.
While every member of any organization owes a certain allegiance to that organization, every citizen's FIRST allegiance is to his fellow citizens. Organizations that act against the better interests of the society need to be made to understand that society will not tolerate such actions when we discover them.
It is vital to discovering such actions that those who are in a position to know of them be welcomed when they come to us to present information on the illegal and improper actions of the organization. That, in turn, means that society has an obligation to protect them from any retaliation or penalty meted out by those organizations.
In my (not so) humble opinion, those who do come forward to inform society are heroes of national proportions. They ought to "suffer" only the consequences of great respect and admiration.
.
toritto, thanks! Yes, great point! Ellsberg considers Manning his counterpart in the younger generation.
Daniel Ellsberg released evidence of war criminality with the Pentagon Papers in 1971. It wasn’t until after 50,000 US troops lost their lives and between 2 and 3 million Vietnamese were killed that that war was ended and there was a public acknowledgment by many in the power elite, the press and the citizenry that it had been a tragic "misadventure. "
WHY DOES IT TAKE SO FRIGGIN' LONG FOR REALITY AND THE HORROR OF EVIL TO PENETRATE THE MAJORITY????
You would think that since the Vietnam lesson happened within our lifetime that we as a country had learned something despite the surviving Nixonian cockroaches like Cheney and Rumsfeld who came back in the days of W, having survived and even more ferociously hardy to evade control and use their dirty tricks to continue the monstrous USwarmachine!
Then we have the phenomenon of hawkish faux-lib neolibs linking up with the neocons. imperialism and globalization and economic and military terrorism in the guise of "American interests" (bleccccchhhh) and the cover up of genocide for profit with humanitarianism (super bleeccchhhh!).
John Mearsheimer has written a book about how governments lie MOSTLY to their own people, rather than to other governments. The media once upon a time called out the lies, at least more than they are doing now! Global media is now run by 5 conglomerates, so the rat bastard one percent has profound power of global propaganda to con and seduce citizenries to turn off their analytical thinking and their consciences. To withhold reality of what is actually going on.
"Thanks for keeping hope alive." I appreciate you saying that. I feel we all need to keep awareness of what is happening alive. Not let the unignorable drop down the memory hole. Gore Vidal called us the "United States of Amnesia"! Too true!!! We must fight becoming "boiled frogs," spiritually dead. What should be protested if not protested and stopped gets normalized and learned helplessness ripples through the population.
I feel for Manning, and I keep thinking of the sad saying, "Hope was the last temptation of Christ." So often messengers don't get thanked, they become the target of disdain and contempt too often for trying to illuminate just how amoral things are. Authority who are called out do the counteroffensive demonization. To discredit the messenger is to once again cling within the bubble of denial.
best, libby
Daniel Ellsberg released evidence of war criminality with the Pentagon Papers in 1971. It wasn’t until after 50,000 US troops lost their lives and between 2 and 3 million Vietnamese were killed that that war was ended and there was a public acknowledgment by many in the power elite, the press and the citizenry that it had been a tragic "misadventure. "
WHY DOES IT TAKE SO FRIGGIN' LONG FOR REALITY AND THE HORROR OF EVIL TO PENETRATE THE MAJORITY????
You would think that since the Vietnam lesson happened within our lifetime that we as a country had learned something despite the surviving Nixonian cockroaches like Cheney and Rumsfeld who came back in the days of W, having survived and even more ferociously hardy to evade control and use their dirty tricks to continue the monstrous USwarmachine!
Then we have the phenomenon of hawkish faux-lib neolibs linking up with the neocons. imperialism and globalization and economic and military terrorism in the guise of "American interests" (bleccccchhhh) and the cover up of genocide for profit with humanitarianism (super bleeccchhhh!).
John Mearsheimer has written a book about how governments lie MOSTLY to their own people, rather than to other governments. The media once upon a time called out the lies, at least more than they are doing now! Global media is now run by 5 conglomerates, so the rat bastard one percent has profound power of global propaganda to con and seduce citizenries to turn off their analytical thinking and their consciences. To withhold reality of what is actually going on.
"Thanks for keeping hope alive." I appreciate you saying that. I feel we all need to keep awareness of what is happening alive. Not let the unignorable drop down the memory hole. Gore Vidal called us the "United States of Amnesia"! Too true!!! We must fight becoming "boiled frogs," spiritually dead. What should be protested if not protested and stopped gets normalized and learned helplessness ripples through the population.
I feel for Manning, and I keep thinking of the sad saying, "Hope was the last temptation of Christ." So often messengers don't get thanked, they become the target of disdain and contempt too often for trying to illuminate just how amoral things are. Authority who are called out do the counteroffensive demonization. To discredit the messenger is to once again cling within the bubble of denial.
best, libby
Jack, I can't believe you are taking such a hard line about Manning.
Joining up as a mercenary should be a given for these men and women and they should suck it up once they have committed? I think anywhere along the way when conscientious objection-ness happens is a good thing!
I challenge you on this take that patriotism and trust and naive macho is not there since I have relatives of my own who enlisted out of patriotism and soldier identity enhancement as well as desperate for a career path. And who enduring insane re-deployments find solace and commitment in trying to keep their buddies alive in the horror, since they can not find honor in the purpose of the "hamburger hill" missions like was seen in Restrepo movie.
Who of us really can appreciate the hells the troops are going through as well as the foreign civilians who are victims of amoral missions that have no respect for the sanctity of their lives. McCord, I am forgetting his first name, but he has shared the rules of engagement that are really anything goes, especially 360 degree rotational fire when there is the threatening sound of a gun or bomb in a vicinity. And if you are one of the troops, you better pretend to be doing 360 degree rotational fire even though you are aiming at the sky and roof tops because you will get targeted and maybe killed by the lost and deranged authoritarian following boot-camped propagandized zealots who have authoritarianly followed orders to becoming murderers for country.
More suicide attempts than troops being killed on the field. 1 out of 3 women in the military is the victim of a sexual assault. SOMETHING IS VIOLENTLY WRONG.
The story of Manning does remind me of the Falcon and the Snowman, the old movie with Hutton and Penn, though Hutton's character was motivated by authority issues with daddy. I think Manning certainly has authority issues, but Manning's emails with Lamo reveal his moral horror at what in his unique position he was witnessing and had the power to expose.
The Collateral Murder video of the Iraqi gunship that shows troops treating killing civilians like enjoying a video game which was not a UNIQUE phenomenon, but reveals the grotesque degree of dehumanization of the "enemy". What multiple deployments must do to numb out the sensibility of decency. And then you have peer pressure group think, like with Mai Lai massacre.
Even if this was a "spy thing", the grandiosity and naivete of youth. that does not excuse the institutional torture Manning has undergone. The sustained and grim detention without charges. Our bill of rights promises speedy trials. Once again Obama regime guts constitutional rights. Some think the Obama administration is trying to mess up Manning so badly psychologically he will be dysfunctional for the eventual trial. Impression management is the big deal. Also hoping Manning will sell out Assange if he is broken enough.
You say discipline their own soldiers? Did you read the details of his detainment? I think of the Lucifer Effect Stanford experiments in which the guards in the experiment were sadistic to the prisoners tells us a lot about what is happening within the military with its Gitmo program and its black ops operations and its Quantico in your face operation now under shameless Obama who doesn't even hide the evil as much as Bush but is ESCALATING IT with assassination of Americans and with torture of Americans. That is sexual abuse, that nakedness stuff. WTF? Shades of Abu Ghraib and now even US troop upon US troop. This isn't about bad apples, this is about chilling top down demoralization using sadism in a corrupt climate of authority.
Manning was in a position to disclose the reality of the amorality happening. Many of the classified documents should not have been classified. But good on him for releasing them since there is a moral and international law our government is breaking.
No one despite the propaganda of the Obama and Pentagon officials lost their lives because of the revelations. Most of it was embarrassing and showed the profits over people agendas. How pimped out and amoral were the deciders of these wars.
Could you explain the following further for me?
"Its not like he refused an order to fire on American citizens. If that were the case then the Assata Shakur solution would be in effect and we as Americans would be obligated to pull it off."
You know the military has a dark and dangerous male cronyism frat-boy on steroids kind of feel to it which horrifies the more I hear about it. And more and more the bar is being lowered to beef up the ranks of those used as cannon fodder. Troops with records who are dangerous to fellow troops for example are allowed to enlist with inducements. Psychologically unstable people are being allowed into the military. Alcoholism and drug abuse proliferate and keep the killings happening rather than being discouraged it sounds like. These guys coming home are trigger happy and addicted and going to find sad fates back at home, they can't shut off the amoral code of self protection, also they will harm others with their PTSD over reactions and there will be homicides and domestic abuse on loved ones or future suicides on themselves.
I remember reading the book The Bush Tragedy and how frat leader W Bush at Yale wanted to "brand" pledges with real Texas branding irons. The Yale administration heard about it, so they stopped him formally using real branding irons (wow, what responsibility), but they did assent to W using hot coat hangers to burn the flesh of the pledges. WTF?????? I wonder if the Yale administration hadn't minimized "boys will be boys" TORTURE and given a pass to Bush to burn fellow younger students with scalding coat hangers maybe he wouldn't have gone along with the TORTURE PROGRAM???? Who knows, but to me Yale was vile and irresponsible and not protecting the welfare of their students.
Obama shows loyalty backing up a military that needs attention AND accountability, along with those from the top down needing accountability, desperately. Obama responds to problems by hyping up pr spin, not addressing the root or getting anywhere near the roots of the problems. Always the "campaigner" not the leader or statesperson.
Thanks for commenting, Jack! Nice to see you and hear your thoughts! best, libby
Joining up as a mercenary should be a given for these men and women and they should suck it up once they have committed? I think anywhere along the way when conscientious objection-ness happens is a good thing!
I challenge you on this take that patriotism and trust and naive macho is not there since I have relatives of my own who enlisted out of patriotism and soldier identity enhancement as well as desperate for a career path. And who enduring insane re-deployments find solace and commitment in trying to keep their buddies alive in the horror, since they can not find honor in the purpose of the "hamburger hill" missions like was seen in Restrepo movie.
Who of us really can appreciate the hells the troops are going through as well as the foreign civilians who are victims of amoral missions that have no respect for the sanctity of their lives. McCord, I am forgetting his first name, but he has shared the rules of engagement that are really anything goes, especially 360 degree rotational fire when there is the threatening sound of a gun or bomb in a vicinity. And if you are one of the troops, you better pretend to be doing 360 degree rotational fire even though you are aiming at the sky and roof tops because you will get targeted and maybe killed by the lost and deranged authoritarian following boot-camped propagandized zealots who have authoritarianly followed orders to becoming murderers for country.
More suicide attempts than troops being killed on the field. 1 out of 3 women in the military is the victim of a sexual assault. SOMETHING IS VIOLENTLY WRONG.
The story of Manning does remind me of the Falcon and the Snowman, the old movie with Hutton and Penn, though Hutton's character was motivated by authority issues with daddy. I think Manning certainly has authority issues, but Manning's emails with Lamo reveal his moral horror at what in his unique position he was witnessing and had the power to expose.
The Collateral Murder video of the Iraqi gunship that shows troops treating killing civilians like enjoying a video game which was not a UNIQUE phenomenon, but reveals the grotesque degree of dehumanization of the "enemy". What multiple deployments must do to numb out the sensibility of decency. And then you have peer pressure group think, like with Mai Lai massacre.
Even if this was a "spy thing", the grandiosity and naivete of youth. that does not excuse the institutional torture Manning has undergone. The sustained and grim detention without charges. Our bill of rights promises speedy trials. Once again Obama regime guts constitutional rights. Some think the Obama administration is trying to mess up Manning so badly psychologically he will be dysfunctional for the eventual trial. Impression management is the big deal. Also hoping Manning will sell out Assange if he is broken enough.
You say discipline their own soldiers? Did you read the details of his detainment? I think of the Lucifer Effect Stanford experiments in which the guards in the experiment were sadistic to the prisoners tells us a lot about what is happening within the military with its Gitmo program and its black ops operations and its Quantico in your face operation now under shameless Obama who doesn't even hide the evil as much as Bush but is ESCALATING IT with assassination of Americans and with torture of Americans. That is sexual abuse, that nakedness stuff. WTF? Shades of Abu Ghraib and now even US troop upon US troop. This isn't about bad apples, this is about chilling top down demoralization using sadism in a corrupt climate of authority.
Manning was in a position to disclose the reality of the amorality happening. Many of the classified documents should not have been classified. But good on him for releasing them since there is a moral and international law our government is breaking.
No one despite the propaganda of the Obama and Pentagon officials lost their lives because of the revelations. Most of it was embarrassing and showed the profits over people agendas. How pimped out and amoral were the deciders of these wars.
Could you explain the following further for me?
"Its not like he refused an order to fire on American citizens. If that were the case then the Assata Shakur solution would be in effect and we as Americans would be obligated to pull it off."
You know the military has a dark and dangerous male cronyism frat-boy on steroids kind of feel to it which horrifies the more I hear about it. And more and more the bar is being lowered to beef up the ranks of those used as cannon fodder. Troops with records who are dangerous to fellow troops for example are allowed to enlist with inducements. Psychologically unstable people are being allowed into the military. Alcoholism and drug abuse proliferate and keep the killings happening rather than being discouraged it sounds like. These guys coming home are trigger happy and addicted and going to find sad fates back at home, they can't shut off the amoral code of self protection, also they will harm others with their PTSD over reactions and there will be homicides and domestic abuse on loved ones or future suicides on themselves.
I remember reading the book The Bush Tragedy and how frat leader W Bush at Yale wanted to "brand" pledges with real Texas branding irons. The Yale administration heard about it, so they stopped him formally using real branding irons (wow, what responsibility), but they did assent to W using hot coat hangers to burn the flesh of the pledges. WTF?????? I wonder if the Yale administration hadn't minimized "boys will be boys" TORTURE and given a pass to Bush to burn fellow younger students with scalding coat hangers maybe he wouldn't have gone along with the TORTURE PROGRAM???? Who knows, but to me Yale was vile and irresponsible and not protecting the welfare of their students.
Obama shows loyalty backing up a military that needs attention AND accountability, along with those from the top down needing accountability, desperately. Obama responds to problems by hyping up pr spin, not addressing the root or getting anywhere near the roots of the problems. Always the "campaigner" not the leader or statesperson.
Thanks for commenting, Jack! Nice to see you and hear your thoughts! best, libby
mark, I so agree about Obama. his lack of respect for the constitution astonishes. Again, I think he deserves impeachment, not re-election!
"His "justice" department makes john mitchell and john ashcroft seem like paragons of virtue."
So agree. Who knew that he would out-outlaw those rabid rat bastards!!!
best, libby
"His "justice" department makes john mitchell and john ashcroft seem like paragons of virtue."
So agree. Who knew that he would out-outlaw those rabid rat bastards!!!
best, libby
Sky,
"Obnoxious Amerika......" ABSOLUTELY. We are a dangerously dysfunctional country. "Bringing "freedom" to the world!" is Orwellian bullshit.
"Is it any wonder that Amerikan style "democracy" has to be forced upon people at the point of a gun?"
Power and control and competition and violence. We need a paradigm shift to humanism. We need an awake and moral citizenry and we need to acknowledge "step 1" like in 12 steps, how unmanageable our so-called representative non-representative government is and get on the same page and leave off the "lesser evilism" cop out path of least and enabling non-resistance.
"IS THIS REALLY THE BEST THAT WE CAN DO?"
No!
Best, libby
"Obnoxious Amerika......" ABSOLUTELY. We are a dangerously dysfunctional country. "Bringing "freedom" to the world!" is Orwellian bullshit.
"Is it any wonder that Amerikan style "democracy" has to be forced upon people at the point of a gun?"
Power and control and competition and violence. We need a paradigm shift to humanism. We need an awake and moral citizenry and we need to acknowledge "step 1" like in 12 steps, how unmanageable our so-called representative non-representative government is and get on the same page and leave off the "lesser evilism" cop out path of least and enabling non-resistance.
"IS THIS REALLY THE BEST THAT WE CAN DO?"
No!
Best, libby
Stu Pot,
You bring up a really overlooked point. THE INCREDIBLE EMBARRASSMENT to the PTB as to how easy it was for Manning to disclose so much information. It shows not only Manning's courage but the apparent incompetence and vulnerability of the actual system of classified record-keeping.
Interesting and actually brilliant how you put this,
"for such an invincible system, America, their military, and capitalism all have to persecute and torture one little military guy who snuck a data stick out of bounds. sounds like a pretty delicate little operation to me. yeah."
Well said!! best, libby
You bring up a really overlooked point. THE INCREDIBLE EMBARRASSMENT to the PTB as to how easy it was for Manning to disclose so much information. It shows not only Manning's courage but the apparent incompetence and vulnerability of the actual system of classified record-keeping.
Interesting and actually brilliant how you put this,
"for such an invincible system, America, their military, and capitalism all have to persecute and torture one little military guy who snuck a data stick out of bounds. sounds like a pretty delicate little operation to me. yeah."
Well said!! best, libby
Thoth, thanks so much for your validation once again. We are too much I agree a nation of shallow consumers (identity the media mirrors to us) and not conscience-committed citizens and we better turn this around fast to save ourselves and our descendants if it is still possible. Also to save the family of men and women in general. We have been victimized by lying leadership and lying media. But I do believe what Louise Hay says, "The point of power is always in the present moment!" Also courage is contagious and we need people stepping out of the status quo cages and doing the right thing, like Manning!!!! Even though in Obamaworld the consequences for such courage are vilely punished. best, libby
Bleue,
Thanks for your comment! I too have been in more modest whistle-blowing situations and the punishments have become more profound as years go by. Corporate America where I work (bottom run neighborhood) is becoming more and more zero tolerance militarized. It is not smart business, either, as well as being amoral and disrespectful to human beings. Okay sociopathic!!!
I like your way of putting it.
"An elegant way to say bovine. Many bulging eyed cows watching their own kids go off to slaughter and be slaughtered as they chew their cuds and mindlessly trample through life."
Wow, now there's a strong fellow citizen "tough love" statement!!!
And you go on, sadly realistic:
"Many will yawn as more and more true and ugly stories unfold. Until the suffering is personal, it's hard to yawn and scream at once. When it's personal for enough people then justice will matter. When you're spoiled, you don't know what you've got until you've lost it."
yes, Bleue, the truth is hard to look at but it needs to be said and heeded!!! thanks for coming by and providing that hard service!
best, libby
xx
Thanks for your comment! I too have been in more modest whistle-blowing situations and the punishments have become more profound as years go by. Corporate America where I work (bottom run neighborhood) is becoming more and more zero tolerance militarized. It is not smart business, either, as well as being amoral and disrespectful to human beings. Okay sociopathic!!!
I like your way of putting it.
"An elegant way to say bovine. Many bulging eyed cows watching their own kids go off to slaughter and be slaughtered as they chew their cuds and mindlessly trample through life."
Wow, now there's a strong fellow citizen "tough love" statement!!!
And you go on, sadly realistic:
"Many will yawn as more and more true and ugly stories unfold. Until the suffering is personal, it's hard to yawn and scream at once. When it's personal for enough people then justice will matter. When you're spoiled, you don't know what you've got until you've lost it."
yes, Bleue, the truth is hard to look at but it needs to be said and heeded!!! thanks for coming by and providing that hard service!
best, libby
xx
Seer,
Thanks for commenting! Nobody deserves what Manning got. Yes, I am sure he knew he might be discovered and the authorities would be incensed. But to face death. To face down daily ritualized torture. To be pushed to psychosis. The new American way. Guilty until proven innocent or guilty. Punishment before the judgement. And cruel and unusual punishments to be used to treat him as a scapegoat and a message carrier to prevent other people from exercising such boldness and courage and risk!
He broke an illegal law as I see it. A coverup of moral and legal violations. And did so to honor a higher law of morality and constitutional law to me is not breaking the law. When the criminals are running things their suspension of law, moral and constitutional law, is wrong, hang the status quo.
I suspect Bradley Manning assumed he would have more support from so-called progressives who aren't even talking the talk any more, thanks to obama con-fusion (fusion with).
Being a cog as an accessory to genocide? He defied his cog-ness. If more cog people turned we might have a country that enabled decency not EVIL!!!
The fewer people to back Manning's act, the fewer people who will be willing to back others who take risks and honor conscience.
I think of that famous poem about first they came for the ... you know the one I mean?
Authoritarian-following is when the status quo is protected by those who don't support those calling it out for criminal activity. And what we got with this administration as Bush's is high crimes and misdemeanors.
i am thinking of the judgment at Nuremburg. Following orders should not cut it.
Thanks for commenting! best, libby
Thanks for commenting! Nobody deserves what Manning got. Yes, I am sure he knew he might be discovered and the authorities would be incensed. But to face death. To face down daily ritualized torture. To be pushed to psychosis. The new American way. Guilty until proven innocent or guilty. Punishment before the judgement. And cruel and unusual punishments to be used to treat him as a scapegoat and a message carrier to prevent other people from exercising such boldness and courage and risk!
He broke an illegal law as I see it. A coverup of moral and legal violations. And did so to honor a higher law of morality and constitutional law to me is not breaking the law. When the criminals are running things their suspension of law, moral and constitutional law, is wrong, hang the status quo.
I suspect Bradley Manning assumed he would have more support from so-called progressives who aren't even talking the talk any more, thanks to obama con-fusion (fusion with).
Being a cog as an accessory to genocide? He defied his cog-ness. If more cog people turned we might have a country that enabled decency not EVIL!!!
The fewer people to back Manning's act, the fewer people who will be willing to back others who take risks and honor conscience.
I think of that famous poem about first they came for the ... you know the one I mean?
Authoritarian-following is when the status quo is protected by those who don't support those calling it out for criminal activity. And what we got with this administration as Bush's is high crimes and misdemeanors.
i am thinking of the judgment at Nuremburg. Following orders should not cut it.
Thanks for commenting! best, libby
Sky, you say this perfectly and profoundly and I repeat it again! I would rate it if I could:
"The point is that those who help to protect society by keeping the citizens informed of the actions of those who are abusing it SHOULD NOT be subject to such consequences in the first place."
"While every member of any organization owes a certain allegiance to that organization, every citizen's FIRST allegiance is to his fellow citizens. Organizations that act against the better interests of the society need to be made to understand that society will not tolerate such actions when we discover them."
"It is vital to discovering such actions that those who are in a position to know of them be welcomed when they come to us to present information on the illegal and improper actions of the organization. That, in turn, means that society has an obligation to protect them from any retaliation or penalty meted out by those organizations."
"In my (not so) humble opinion, those who do come forward to inform society are heroes of national proportions. They ought to "suffer" only the consequences of great respect and admiration. "
THANK YOU! best, libby
"The point is that those who help to protect society by keeping the citizens informed of the actions of those who are abusing it SHOULD NOT be subject to such consequences in the first place."
"While every member of any organization owes a certain allegiance to that organization, every citizen's FIRST allegiance is to his fellow citizens. Organizations that act against the better interests of the society need to be made to understand that society will not tolerate such actions when we discover them."
"It is vital to discovering such actions that those who are in a position to know of them be welcomed when they come to us to present information on the illegal and improper actions of the organization. That, in turn, means that society has an obligation to protect them from any retaliation or penalty meted out by those organizations."
"In my (not so) humble opinion, those who do come forward to inform society are heroes of national proportions. They ought to "suffer" only the consequences of great respect and admiration. "
THANK YOU! best, libby
The government is doing so many outrageous things that I can't keep up with them anymore. In the news they just reported about the pepper spraying of more students protesting high tuition rates in California. I still haven't checked up on that but I already know that tactics like the use of copyrights and other things to drive up the cost of education and increase profits are being used so their is no doubt they have legitimate reason to protest.
The treatment of Manning should scare us all added to all the other things they're doing; thanks for the update.
The treatment of Manning should scare us all added to all the other things they're doing; thanks for the update.
Oh I can appreciate the horrors Libby, you will just have to take my word on that one, but my point was: as an American citizen I do not feel responsible for Manning. If I did I would have to reconcile myself to being a coward for not doing something about it. Don’t rush it Libby. We will have plenty of real martyrs to propagate themselves. As Dan Fogarty once said: “There's a bad moon on the rise.”
That’s a good answer ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ is exactly what Manning’s situation reminds me of.
That’s a good answer ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ is exactly what Manning’s situation reminds me of.
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