That's what one protester, David Eberhardt of Baltimore, said out loud as a military judge adjourned a hearing to arraign Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in Ft. Meade, Maryland last week for allegedly leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. It was the only outburst during the proceedings. The judge didn't respond.
Yes, David, reporting overt war crimes being committed and covered up under the pretense of "classification" and "national security" is a moral and patriotic duty to one's country-- especially when they include actions that were putting our own troops on the ground at risk. The American people have a right to know what their government is doing in their name and with their tax dollars. If they understood, maybe more of them would have started questioning the wars and endless nation building a long time ago. That's why Manning is an American hero.
I was pleased to learn yesterday that Bradley Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize:
OSLO, Norway — The Nobel Peace Prize jury has received 231 nominations for this year’s award, a spokesman said, with publicly disclosed candidates including a former Ukrainian prime minister and the U.S. soldier accused of leaking classified material to WikiLeaks.
The secretive committee doesn’t reveal who has been nominated, but those with nomination rights sometimes announce their picks.
Names put forward this year include Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Others believed to have been nominated include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Bill Clinton?? Lol.
After that Obama snafu, I hope the Nobel prize committee has learned its lesson. Maybe they could make amends for awarding the prize to someone who had done absolutely nothing by awarding the prize to someone who has done something entirely game-changing and at great personal sacrifice to himself, something that has put irrevocably in the historical record for all of humanity, a cache of documentation showing warfare for what it really is.
Who can you think of who has done more to strike a deep, resounding blow "for the abolition or reduction of standing armies" in the world?
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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