Read Online The Passion of Bradley Manning by Chase Madar - Free Book Online Page A

of incarceration in context.” Meaning that it’s okay to lock transgender people in solitary for as long as you want? The comment is certainly open to interpretation.
    Is the political angle too obvious for clever journalists? One man with no patience for the media’s lurid fixation on Manning’s personal life is Ethan McCord—the US infantryman who retrieved the two wounded children from the shot-up van on July 12, 2007, all filmed between the cross-hairs in the “Collateral Murder” video. He responded to a New York Magazine article on Manning that dwelled at length on the soldier’s gender identity counseling, but barely mentioned his crisis of conscience after helping to round up Iraqi civilian activists for likely torture. McCord’s cogent letter to New York is worth quoting in full, even if the magazine printed only a snippet.
    Serving with my unit 2nd battalion 16th infantry in New Baghdad Iraq, I vividly remember the moment in 2007, when our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement:
    â€œListen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!”
    We weren’t trained extensively to recognize an unlawful order, or how to report one. But many of us could not believe what we had just been told to do. Those of us who knew it was morally wrong struggled to figure out a way to avoid shooting innocent civilians, while also dodging repercussions from the non-commissioned officers who enforced the policy. In such situations, we determined to fire our weapons, but into rooftops or abandoned vehicles, giving the impression that we were following procedure.
    On April 5, 2010 American citizens and people around the world got a taste of the fruits of this standing operating procedure when WikiLeaks [1] released the now-famous Collateral Murder [2] video. This video showed the horrific and wholly unnecessary killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists.
    I was part of the unit that was responsible for this atrocity. In the video, I can be seen attempting to carry wounded children to safety in the aftermath.
    The video released by WikiLeaks belongs in the public record. Covering up this incident is a matter deserving of criminal inquiry. Whoever revealed it is an American hero in my book.
    Private First Class Bradley Manning has been confined for over a year on the government’s accusation that he released this video and volumes of other classified documents to WikiLeaks—an organization that has been selectively publishing portions of this information in collaboration with other news outlets.
    If PFC Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then it is clear—from chat logs [3] that have been attributed to him—that his decision was motivated by conscience and political agency. These chat logs allegedly describe how PFC Manning hopes these revelations will result in “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.”
    Unfortunately, Steve Fishman’s article Bradley Manning’s Army of One [4] in New York Magazine (July 3, 2011) erases Manning’s political agency. By focusing so heavily on Manning’s personal life, Fishman removes politics from a story that has everything to do with politics. The important public issues wrapped up with PFC Manning’s case include: transparency in government; the Obama Administration’s unprecedented pursuit of whistle-blowers; accountability of government and military in shaping and carrying out foreign policy; war crimes revealed in the WikiLeaks documents; the catalyzing role these revelations played in democratic movements across the Middle East; and more.
    The contents of the WikiLeaks revelations have pulled back the curtain on the degradation of our democratic system. It has become completely normal for