Bradley Manning Wins Peace Prize

Saw this here... http://www.prosebeforehos.com/quote-of-the-day/08/24/charlie-chaplin-on-liberty/ So I put this here -- http://raisingkidswithoutreligion.net/2013/07/24/goals/#comment-12459

Editor/David -- You are always welcome to post anything I submit in any format you prefer. I will flag those items I feel might warrant its own space. I value and appreciate Salem-News and the courage and integrity of its personnel. best regards to you all.

LT

Editor: Thank you LT, best regards to you as well.

An expanded version of my comments here were in the comment section at Veterans Today -- http://www.veteranstoday.com/2009/11/11/welcome-home-soldier-now-shut-up/

My friend’s son was with Marines 1/5 for the fall of Baghdad. When I asked him what his experience over there was, the first words out of his mouth were, “We killed people for no reason.” He went on to relate how their checkpoints would regularly open up on approaching vehicles that often were full of nothing but women and children because maybe they didn’t slow down enough or heed hand signals properly. He also had to render aid to these same occupants with wounded children screaming in anguish and terror next to their dead or dying mothers and aunts. He told of a six year old girl with the back of her skull blown off by a rifle round stumbling about unaware of anything but her dead mother on the ground.

He said he learned first hand just how much we were all lied to about Iraq. His attitude was, “Support the troops, but not the mission” (this sentiment gets regularly mocked on right wing sites). Several of his friends I met at his homecoming never came back from their next tour of duty.

Other sites that I have posted this account at have said either he or I are liars(right wing of course). That’s how badly they need to deny the horror done in our name. Yes, they have given much to try to help the Iraqis, but also saw how much misery they brought due to corrupt US leadership.


I am grateful to this site and all the posters regardless of viewpoint for letting me share this. I listened to my friend’s son talk openly and honestly about his combat experiences. He told me things that were traumatic just to hear them, let alone be there. I am glad he is a well-adjusted young man and seems to view his role there with a calm stoicism; but I’m sure he bears a psychic burden as well. You cannot be a thinking, feeling person and not be affected by those images. [UPDATE from when I first posted this - Adam has been diagnosed with PTSD, but his father says he gets ZERO help from the VA because he falls under the 60% designation]

“I like shooting, and I love hunting. But I never did enjoy killing anybody. It’s my job. If I don’t get those bastards, then they’re gonna kill a lot of these kids we got dressed up like Marines. That’s just the way I see it.” – Marine Sniper Carlos Hathcock (May 20, 1942 – February 23, 1999)

The following squares with what my friend’s son, who was with Marines 1/5 for the fall of Baghdad, told me when I asked him about his experiences in combat. The very first words out of his mouth were,

“We killed people for no reason.”

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— Statement by Bradley Manning read after his sentencing

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time I realized in our efforts to meet this risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.

Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown our any logically based intentions [unclear], it is usually an American soldier that is ordered to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, the Japanese-American internment camps—to name a few. I am confident that many of our actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.

As the late Howard Zinn once said, “There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”

I understand that my actions violated the law, and I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.

If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.

Lance if you want items like this published as articles rather than comments you can send them to me, or just specify, thanks! We're always stoked to hear from you.