Naked Vengeance, American Style
The story of wikileaks is a story of whistle-blowing on those perpetrating and perpetuating an outrageously misguided and baldly corrupt war with no end in sight.
And one of the whistle-blowers was Pfc Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, who, according to the Times "is suspected of disclosing more than 260,000 diplomatic cables, more than 90,000 intelligence reports on the war in Afghanistan and one video of a military helicopter attack — much of it classified."
You'll remember the helicopter attack — it was on two Reuters journalists and a crowd of civilians, none of them armed, and the van that arrives on the scene to rescue them.
Mistakes were made, right?
But this video, which wikileaks labeled "collateral murder", neatly encapsulates the cold horror of this particular war, and succinctly shows why it will never be "won", if indeed that was ever the point.
Though the footage is from 2007, watching it in the light of recent revelations about Bradley Manning's detention reminds us that the evils perpetrated in the past decade in our name have not abated under Obama.
According to Manning's lawyer (and corroborated by Marine Corps spokesman), the Marine brig in Quantico, VA.,
has stripped PFC Manning of all of his clothing for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely. Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing. He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call.As reported in the Washington Post, "the brig commander issued the order Wednesday, the same day Pfc. Manning was hit with a new charge - aiding the enemy - that could carry the death penalty."
Talk about shooting the messenger.
At some point those of us in whose name this costly campaign of corruption, murder and vengeance is still being waged will have to take courage ourselves so that those who have sacrificed to speak truth to power will not have done it for nothing.
It is impossible not to speculate that there is a sado-sexual element in the treatment to which PFC Manning is being subjected. How are we better than Abu Ghraib?
Reply to this
We are not better than Abu Ghraib. Neither are we better than the murderers of thousands and millions because quantities of lives ended does not make worse the wanton killing of one.
The language is fascinating. Engage instead of kill. And the sometimes cavalier, a hunting we will go attitude is nothing less than horrific. Apparently killing people is now as common as blowing one's nose.
This nation has been engaged in an occupation for the past 10 years. The tax dollars from each of us, and a few loans from China, have wreaked chaos and destruction.
Is this nation any closer to actually leaving Iraq? Will Iraq ultimately turn into a mirror image of Iran but equally committed to vengeance against the United States?
It is ironic that in a nation which spends so much of its resources in doing good is also willing to spend so much of its resources in doing evil.
Reply to this