I'm proud of Philip J. Crowley. As Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Crowley had the guts to denounce the sustained (mis)treatment of Private Bradley Manning as "ridiculous" and "counterproductive" and "stupid." For this burst of principled honesty, the Obama administration cashiered him. Never has the moral obtuseness of the Obama/Hillary Clinton duumvirate been more clearly displayed.
Crowley and I have two things in common: We're from the same hometown, and we made our first careers in the Air Force (I served for 20 years; Crowley for 26). Our hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts is a working-class town, proud of its reputation as the "City of Champions" (especially the heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano and the middleweight boxer "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler), and prouder still of its pragmatic patriotism based on a sense of decency and fair play. By any standard, the treatment of Manning (solitary confinement, forced nudity, constant harassment) has been indecent and unfair. I have no evidence for this, but I'd like to think Crowley's hard-hitting jabs against the Pentagon hailed in part from his roots as a Brockton Boxer.
But, more than anything, I suspect Crowley's stance came from his twenty-six year career in the U.S. Air Force. Like him, I swore an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. The U.S. Constitution protects us all from cruel and unusual punishment: an apt description of the military's treatment of Private Manning.
Indeed, anyone who respects the U.S. Constitution can't help but be appalled by the military's treatment of Manning. It's worse than ridiculous or counterproductive or stupid: it's patently inconsistent with our nation's ideals as expressed in our Bill of Rights.
Again, I commend P.J. Crowley for being a man in the arena, for standing up for what he believed in, for taking some hard swings before a milquetoast establishment forced him out of the ring. Pick yourself up, P.J., and hold your head high. For those who fired you, they deserve only to hang their heads in shame.
Professor Astore writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.
-Dwight Eisenhower
Nice to see that some can get past the silly republican/democrat game and get down to what is right.
Democrats who are supporting Obama in this issue should be ashamed.
Frankly I think America needs a liberal party since the democrats don't seem to be liberal anymore.
"He is not being abused and tortured "
Whatever you want to believe, dude. Amnesty International, Red Cross, the Geneva Convention, Convention Against Torture have a different take on the abuses being visited upon his person.
According to available data, there are some 25,000 inmates in long-term isolation in the nation’s supermax prisons, and as many as 80,000 more in solitary in other facilities.
What about the 15-year-old boy who, along with several dozen other juveniles, is being held is solitary in a jail in Harris County, Texas, while he awaits trial on a robbery charge. He is one of hundreds–if not thousands–of prisoners being held in pre-trial solitary confinement, for one reason or another, on any given day in America. Most of them lack decent legal representation, or are simply too poor to make bail.
What about the prisoners held in the St. Tammany Parish Jail in rural Louisiana. In a brief by the Louisiana ACLU, “After the jail determines a prisoner is suicidal, the prisoner is stripped half-naked and placed in a 3 x 3 metal cage with no shoes, bed, blanket or toilet…Prisoners report they must curl up on the floor to sleep because the cages are too small to let them lie down. Guards frequently ignore repeated requests to use the bathroom, forcing some desperate people to urinate in discarded containers.” The cells are one-fourth the size mandated by local law for caged dogs.
Many have argued that the nature of Manning’s alleged crimes renders him a heroic political prisoner, rather than a “common” criminal like most others.
I
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You are right though, throughout history in all cultures this stuff goes on; some of us are just hopeless idealists.... although personally i'm almost ready to give up.
What has HAPPENED to this country??? It appears the Bill of Rights was revoked under George Bush and just that nobody has told the citizens.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/cambridge/articles/2011/03/14/state_dept_spokesman_quits_over_remarks/
And Wikileaks isn't just an attack on the Obama Administration - it's releasing government documents that tell the truth about what the government's been doing for a while.
What Private Manning did was in the tradition of American patriots, who place more value in exposing the truth of the misdeeds and crimes of the US government than their own personal safety.
And BTW; "they know that if the fellow didn't release a single thing...even the effort to do so is criminal. Any person who is in custody must be protected from hurting themselves"; HE HASN'T BEEN CONVICTED OF ANYTHING!!
He is ALLEGED to have committed a crime.
He is being ABUSED AND TORTURED BY THE US MILITARY!!
HE HAS RIGHTS AS A US CITIZEN!! You DO know that, right?
But people are using Manning as a poster child to support whatever platform and/or agenda they want to push forward.
Manning is not a patriot. What he did is not admirable. And, there are many citizen's in the United States and in deployed areas who may have been affected by his actions.
What makes Manning any different from other enemies of the State? Why are people supportive of his actions instead of condemning them?
He is no hero!
And, I don't care if anyone likes or agrees with me or not.
People talk about being american and patriotic, but some of you sound as if you would do more damage than good.
Where is it written that the right to know "everything" . Some things are on a need to know basis. Some things are for eyes only. Some things are Top Secret, Secret, or General... Why do people need security clearances only to have information released to the general public, and possibly those who are against the U.S.A.
He is not being abused and tortured by the U.S. Military.
Again, is this concern for everyone.....or is this person special?
Fanned and faved.