For Bradley Manning was an honourable guy, Bradley Manning knew right from wrong, and Bradley Manning had a compassionate heart and a vibrant conscience.

All these things are well attested to by friends, by what we know of his life, by his own words, by the two occasions now we have now heard him testify in person, and by the actual fact of the leaks.

Did you ever ask yourself why the rest of those 2.5 million people who all had access to the information Bradley is accused of leaking….didn’t?

Why they passed by on the other side? (And up to 4.5 million had access to some of the material)

Why they never, as far as we know, said to themselves, ‘I can’t be a party to this’

Why they shut up and did what they were told even when it meant they were compromising their integrity, and by implication, were complicit in what they knew was indefensible?

Complicit in inflicting immense suffering on people, in destroying lives and breaking hearts, in holding people down, keeping them in poverty, slavery and despair?

Why almost without exception, they were seemingly not morally mature or responsible enough to take significant action opposing all that injustice?

And there are, of course, a few notable exceptions…..and these few whistleblowers have all, like Brad, been relentlessly pursued to prosecution, and accused of being traitors by their fellow citizens.

But these people are exceptions – the vast majority failed entirely to react to the evidence before them.

What does that say about the state we’re in?

It’s not an easy thing to do. To step right out against all prevailing norms, with all the odds crushingly weighted against your two pennorth making any difference at all. Why bother?

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE – WHO IS BRADLEY MANNING?

Perhaps most people are more short term pragmatic than Bradley Manning, have less consuming empathy, and are more adept at ignoring uncomfortable truths.

Most people probably don’t believe in themselves, in their judgment, in humanity, and in their ability to change things, as much as Bradley Manning, and probably most people simply wouldn’t have the guts to step out of that kind of deeply scored line and take the risk of having the guns turned round on them.

Probably most people’s conscience is more jaded and most people’s hope more or less restricted to the narrow sphere of their own welfare.

And maybe most people just don’t see so very clearly to the heart of things.

And don’t realise that inaction is as much a position as action – Brad calls it apathy and appears to see it as something he must not allow to get the upper hand in his consideration of what to do.

we’re human… and we’re killing ourselves… and no-one seems to see that… and it bothers me

apathy

apathy is far worse than the active participation

I prefer a painful truth over any blissful fantasy.

Reminding some of us of this:

Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

Paulo Freire

‘SENSE OF MISSION’ WAS ALWAYS OBVIOUS 

Embedded in the chat logs we already had, there is (contrary to what Bill Keller is suggesting) a strong sense of mission; a sense of Brad’s being in the position where he faces a moral imperative; where he realises that it is he who must take this action – a clear sense of calling.

Julian Assange describes such moments like this: 

‘Usually the whistleblowers that approach us do so when they have a moment of moral clarity……that moment of moral clarity should be seized….that moment of courage…..should be seized and used…..’

And we learn more from the Feb 23 statement about this, that it is obviously a sense which Bradley weighs and tests, which in this process does not dissipate, only becomes clearer and more definite as he considers his response.

And the statement clarifying his actions which you can hear above, does just that – it clarifies. And it does give some new information. But it is consistent with what we already knew, and to anyone interested enough to have looked into the chat logs and other evidence that was previously available to us, it isn’t, in the main, a surprise.

SOMEONE TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

And it really is such a nonsense, such a ludicrous insult to Brad’s very obvious intelligence to say that his statement attaches a retrospective meaning which he has formulated only through the body of support he has attracted since his imprisonment, as Nathan Fuller and Kevin Gosztola point out in their rebuttals to that NYT editorial.

There are people among us for whom we have to be very grateful indeed (and Bradley Manning is being revealed as one of them), who, seemingly, just cannot bear to be other than truly and honestly humanitarian; they care passionately and practically about justice and truth and instead of just focusing on self protection, they care enough about the future we have as people together on this planet to expose themselves to jeopardy.

He says:

i cant separate myself from others i feel connected to everybody… like they were distant family

i… care? >sigh<

And his moral clarity is not contaminated by the sophistry that rejects real hope. Here is a moment when Brad contemplates the possibility that nothing will change:

and god knows what happens now

hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms if not… then we’re doomed as a species

i will officially give up on the society we have if nothing happens…

But, although he considers this, you can see it’s not his default – because his default is plainly optimistic, belief, hope – all those acute states of being that define a mindset the polar opposite of cynicism…apathy…the paralysis of a lazy pragmatism.

i want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are…

because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public

if i knew then, what i knew now… kind of thing… or maybe im just young, naive, and stupid…

im hoping for the former

it cant be the latter because if it is… were fucking screwed (as a society) and i dont want to believe that we’re screwed

well, it SHOULD be better

AN APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO AN ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ SITUATION

Bradley Manning was sent out to an illegal, pointless and immoral war, soon recognised it for what it was, and bravely took steps that he believed would make a difference to the madness he was seeing; to make an impact on

the situation we were mired in

conor-friedersdorf-in.

He describes the “sense of relief” he felt after he transferred the first documents to WikiLeaks in January 2010.

“I felt that I had accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience about something I knew was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan every day.

At that time I believed, and I still believe, that these tables (the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs) are two of the most significant documents of our time.

Apparently that belief, that seal on his actions has not left him – in the words of the title of Chase Madar’s book, we are witnessing the historic and pivotal Passion of Bradley Manning. 

SEE http://www.versobooks.com/books/1401-the-passion-of-bradley-manning

POEM FROM LAST SUMMER

FREE: BRADLEY MANNING

“apathy…. apathy is far worse than the active participation

I prefer a painful truth over any blissful fantasy”

 

I did hesitate

 

I saw myself turned into the face of it

overtaken and buried    wrapped into it

stuff had happened before

 

but choices, even as they absorb us,

call us by Name

and the fit here was tight     apposite;

Me, incorrigibly the bearer of burdens,

the means, the method,  

and a life-for-death channel

to clean water

 

On the other hand

there was Apathy

 

that most far reaching

of all contributions

its fine dust slipping

through soothing fingers

sealing the world over

smothering the grieving

giving cover

to the grievous

 

and making Cataclysm a Ministry

 

And there in the desert

this was so clear to me:

we were   all   very   thirsty

 

For now you will interpret me

through the rising cloud of the deluge,

seize at falling fragments (debris) tearing me,

frustrating me. But in the end that

just won’t wash like this will

 

I’m telling you –

I’ve been fighting with my life in the depths of it,

yet I can’t envy you;

I can’t do what you do;

I was ever gripped by the defining option

 

And look, I’m the catalyst, right?

I’m still in this reaction

wooing it, winning it, bringing it on,

and when all’s said and done

I’m coming on through it

intact

 

vw june 2012