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Statement from Bradley Manning, on the occasion of his being sentenced to 35 years in prison
August 21, 2013
Bradley Manning: "Sometimes You Have to Pay a Heavy Price to Live in a Free Society"
The following is a transcript of the statement made by Pfc. Bradley Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday after Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. Weve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact weve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.
I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time I realized in our efforts to meet this risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.
In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.
Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based intentions, it is usually an American soldier that is ordered to carry out some ill-conceived mission.
Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracythe Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, the Japanese-American internment campsto name a few. I am confident that many of our actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.
As the late Howard Zinn once said, "There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
I understand that my actions violated the law, and I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.
If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/8/21/bradley_manning_sometimes_you_have_to_pay_a_heavy_price_to_live_in_a_free_society
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)prior, but I guess that didn't work out. Shame. Don't hold much hope out for a pardon, either.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Strategically, I think it would be in the President's best interest to grant one quickly. ... but I don't see that happening. At least not for a while. The Supreme Court might surprise us but I'm not holding out much more hope there
bhikkhu
(10,715 posts)...as it would be an election issue otherwise. I think by that time even Manning's detractors (and its hard to think there are very many) would probably be satisfied with "time served".
I have to say, I'm have a more favorable view of our president than many here, and a pretty good level of confidence in him, but if he doesn't pardon Manning that will be one black mark.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)Debating a pardon in the face of political party aspirations during an election year speaks exactly to what is morally corrupt about our current government...
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Z_I_Peevey
(2,783 posts).
and here's one for Bradley.