Connery
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Bradley Manning reported a war crime, which was the right thing to do.The Childish Defense of Bradley Manning
March 5, 2013
By Alan W. Dowd
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has confessed to providing military and diplomatic secrets to WikiLeaks, pleading guilty to 10 criminal counts for what he once bragginglyand erroneouslycalled the largest data spillage in American history. In fact, what Manning perpetrated was the purposeful, premeditated and arguably treasonous publication of stolen national-security secrets. This was not a leak or a spill.
It pays to recall that this poster-child hero of the anti-war left gave U.S. military and diplomatic secrets to an anarchist group. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange openly admits that he wants to bring down many administrations that rely on concealing realityincluding the U.S. administration. Likewise, Manning once boasted about worldwide anarchy in CSV format, a reference to the kind of files he surrendered to Assange.
Over the years, Assange and his anarchists have published operations manuals for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; classified reports on the Battle of Fallujah; detailed information on U.S. military equipment, by unit, in Iraq; gun-camera footage of a U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad; a U.S. Special Forces manual for bolstering allied governments; CIA strategies to shore up public support among allied populations for the war in Afghanistan; Social Security numbers of U.S. military personnel; and private diplomatic exchanges.
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In other words, WikiLeaks, whether unintentionally or purposely, puts the United States and its allies at a disadvantage. Some will say this has always been true of democratic governments vis-à-vis their dictatorial foes. But timing is everything. And WikiLeaks is shrinking the amount of time between policy formation, policy execution and public airingand thus shrinking the shadows where American foreign and defense policy can work.
The Childish Defense of Bradley Manning
Anyone who has seen that Collateral Murder video and thinks it's okay to shoot un-armed civilians standing in the street, is an anti-American asshole who should renounce his citizenship.Bradley said he was frustrated by his inability to convince his chain of command to investigate the Collateral Murder video and other war porn documented in the files he provided to WikiLeaks. I was disturbed by the response to injured children. Bradley was bothered by the soldiers depicted in the video who seemed to not value human life by referring to [their targets] as dead bastards. People trying to rescue the wounded were also fired upon and killed. A U.S. tank drove over one body, cutting the man in half. The actions of American soldiers shown in that video amount to war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit targeting civilians, preventing the rescue of the wounded, and defacing dead bodies.
There were means other than chain of command that Manning could have and should have pursue should he have needed to express his dissatisfaction with the US and it's activities. What he did was place many lives, not only US, at risk. He had no right to take matters into his own hands. He showed no regard for the value of life or the rights of others by these actions.