If I am going to argue that Bradley Manning behaved, and continues to behave, in an enlightened fashion, I need to explain what I mean quite carefully. Enlightenment has always attracted more than its fair share of flashy frauds. In the past decade, supporters of financial sector deregulation and of US aggression overseas — often the same people — have raided the dressing-up box for 18th century clothing.
We remain immature as long as we are unable — or unwilling — to reason without the guidance of an external authority.
In certain circumstances there can be no debate. A soldier, for example, cannot question his orders when in action. He must simply obey.
The distinction that matters is between the public and private use of reason. There are other, more radical enlightenments than those described by Kant. Manning decided to do what he did because he independently reached the conclusion that it would be morally wrong for him to remain silent.
He decided that the voting public should know what he — and thousands of soldiers and diplomats — knew about the foreign entanglements of the United States. At no point did he seek private advantage from what he was doing. He also took considerable pains to ensure that the material contained nothing that would endanger his fellow soldiers or damage US interests.
He tried as best he could to ensure that the exercise of public reason did not cause him to betray his private responsibilities as a soldier. Most tellingly, Manning does not shy away from these private responsibilities. At considerable cost to himself Manning conforms almost precisely to the Kantian model of enlightenment.
Manning accepts that what he did was contrary to the regulations of the institution to which he belonged. The mistake of nonredacted names must be weighed against the reality of the lives already destroyed by the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq and the lives that would be lost if this information was not leaked in an effort to end some illegal acts of war. What if these revelations, in the name of compliance with law and morality, were not revealed?
How many more innocent lives would then be sacrificed? Democracy must be transparent or it is not democracy. It is the duty of citizens to participate in democracy and shine light on truth. Thomas Jefferson said that given a choice between having government and having newspapers, he would choose newspapers. Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime. It is the war criminals who should be prosecuted.
Daniel Ellsberg has been saying that Manning is a hero of his and that when he released the Pentagon Papers, everything that is now being said about Manning, including that he is a traitor, was also said about Ellsberg at the time. Manning, or whoever leaked the information he is accused of leaking, deserves our thanks. It took 30 years for the heroes, who interrupted the My Lai massacre to be honored with the awarding of the Soldiers Medal, the U. Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.
At the award ceremony, Army Maj. Michael Ackerman said, "It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," and that the three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow. The city of Berkeley has a long tradition of standing up for peace and for justice.
It has opposed the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, it has opposed torture, and it is one of the cities that called for the impeachment of George W. Manning and the case against him now represent the culmination of all the horror and repression that we have experienced in the last decade. The Berkeley City Council now has the opportunity to weigh in on the side of all that is right on the road to repairing the damage done to the world by the policies and the cover-ups of the last decade.
McHugh, and chief of staff of the Army, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. Gordon Wozniak was elected to the Berkeley City Council in A retired nuclear chemist, he was a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for more than 30 years.
Yes, I am a City Council member in Berkeley, a place known for bucking the establishment and for opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also oppose these wars, but unlike some of my colleagues in city government, I do not believe that Pfc. Bradley Manning should be declared a hero or freed from prison before all the evidence against him is presented in court. Manning is accused of disclosing classified information to WikiLeaks, including diplomatic cables and military logs of incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A military grand jury is investigating charges that he mishandled classified information in a way likely to cause injury to the United States. We have dedicated our lives to working for peace because we have seen many faces of armed conflict and violence, and we understand that no matter the cause of war, civilians always bear the brunt of the cost.
With today's advanced military technology and the continued ability of business and political elites to filter what information is made public, there exists a great barrier to many citizens being fully aware of the realities and consequences of conflicts in which their country is engaged. Responsible governance requires fully informed citizens who can question their leadership.
For those citizens worldwide who do not have direct, intimate knowledge of war, yet are still affected by rising international tensions and failing economies, WikiLeaks releases attributed to Bradley Manning have provided unparalleled access to important facts. Revealing covert crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and corporations' pervasive influence in governance, this window into the realities of modern international relations has changed the world for the better.
While some of these documents may demonstrate how much work lies ahead in terms of securing international peace and justice, they also highlight the potential of the internet as a forum for citizens to participate more directly in civic discussion and creative government accountability projects. Questioning authority, as a soldier, is not easy. But it can, at times, be honorable. Words attributed to Bradley Manning reveal that he went through a profound moral struggle between the time he enlisted and when he became a whistleblower.
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