Bradley Manning, a Victim?

Air Strikes in Iraq
Image Courtesy: Google

In 2010, a young soldier decided he should do something about the war. Many of the powerful nations on the earth were in Iraq, making it even with another murderer. The nations that were at war included his nation too, The Unites States of America. Many people were murdering many others in the name of justice, punishment, and sovereignty. Nevertheless, nothing made sense when he saw what the war led them to.

Prison cells were teaming with humans without cloths, food, water, and dignity. When the cells were full, they shot some of them, not just, because the budget for ammunitions was large enough to afford it, but also to make more room in prisons. Many lost their lives this way. Many were still alive in the hope that one day their religious leaders would negotiate for their lives. When no one came for them, they all lost hope and turned insane. There were others, who held on. However, they did not get fair trials. Finally, they shot them too.  

A naked soldier was tied up in chains to a wall and three or four other soldiers pissed at the soldier in chains. The soldiers, who were urinating, thought if the barbarians had captured them, they would have beheaded them, without even asking their last wish. At least, that was not happening here. Pissing and shitting was much humanitarian.

Bradley Edward Manning was his name. A young soldier, from Crescent, Oklahoma, US, he was arrested in May 2010, under charges of passing classified information to WikiLeaks. Through the information that Bradley Manning allegedly handed over to the website, the world saw a war ripped off from all the Hollywood masala, naked and vulgar. That was not just prison cells, but much more. How can one ignore the airstrike video that in the cable television, those guys celebrated?

On one hand, Bradley Manning can be justified in helping humanity see through the vagueness of politics and blindness of battles. His courage is remarkable. However, on the other hand, he compromised his nation’s interests. What his nation wanted to be protected and hidden, he revealed, in an act of disrespectful honesty. The stand of the US government in this matter is in this light and is deserving respect as well.

The victim here is neither Bradley Manning nor Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the Millennial Gandhi, but the United States itself. After the attack on the World Trade Centre, the US proclaimed that she would not let this happen one more time; no enemy would attack the nation upon her soil again. In the solemn pledge the United States undertook for its citizens’ safety, she failed. The name of that failure is Bradley Manning.

Bradley Manning
Image Courtesy: Google

Islamic terror came inside the fortified walls of ideas and political propagandas and pulled the young US soldier into the abyss of hell, with the help of the same democracy, the same system, the terrorists want to destroy. A US citizen will lose his normal life in the name of ‘national interest’, why? Because he sympathized with his enemies.

War atrocities would be present on both sides. A war qualifies the presence of cruelty at all levels. Bradley Manning had empathy for one side, as you may think from the videos. By arresting Manning, the US is cornering its own citizen, a soldier, thus appearing unjustifiable, cruel, and ruthless. Who is the winner in this game of crime and punishment? Who is laughing?