I was pleasantly surprised by the announcement that President Obama would commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence so that she may be released in May.
For releasing to WikiLeaks information about events such as murder, torture, abuse—and even the theft of the UN Secretary General’s DNA—Manning was convicted by court martial and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for twenty-two charges, including “aiding the enemy,” a charge for which she was eventually acquitted. She spent a significant amount of time in solitary confinement, an outmoded and unnecessary form of torture, and, to add irony upon sadism, solitary confinement was used as a form of punishment after her most recent suicide attempt. The public has been divided about Manning: the government and many others have regarded Manning as a traitor.
I applaud the president’s act of commutation, while noting, however, that it differs from an outright pardon that would have wiped Manning’s convictions off her record.
But let’s look at what Manning really did. She observed the most reprehensible deeds while serving in a country that was illegally invaded and occupied—Iraq–and she allowed her conscience to expose them and show the world the lies, deceptions and decrepitude practiced by a State that had taken it upon itself to be beholden to nothing but its own imperatives.
She should, in fact, be considered a hero for upholding the claims of humanity against the depredations of evil. And yet, I fear that the damage done to her during her incarceration will be enduring. And I also fear that she may not make it out of prison alive in the coming months.
I’m not so sure that even Orwell and Kafka foresaw how Power would twist Truth so effectively in the modern state: so many reasonable people so readily bow to a “war on terror” at the expense of individual liberties and reward the likes of Manning, Assange and Snowden with scorn instead of celebration for telling us what has really been going on in the name of our democracy.
Obama’s woefully tarnished legacy includes drone assassinations, murderous illegal invasions, the failure to shut down Guantanamo Bay, an increase in spending on nuclear arms, and the bombing of some of the poorest countries on earth.
Perhaps this act of clemency towards Chelsea Manning, a person who risked life and limb for the sake of conscience, will give us some little bit of the Hope and Change he so earnestly promised while running for the highest office of the land.
Dr. Garcia is an American-born writer and physician who resides in New Zealand.
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Chelsea Manning has sacrificed her life
Posted on January 19, 2017 by Emanuel E. Garcia, MD
I was pleasantly surprised by the announcement that President Obama would commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence so that she may be released in May.
For releasing to WikiLeaks information about events such as murder, torture, abuse—and even the theft of the UN Secretary General’s DNA—Manning was convicted by court martial and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for twenty-two charges, including “aiding the enemy,” a charge for which she was eventually acquitted. She spent a significant amount of time in solitary confinement, an outmoded and unnecessary form of torture, and, to add irony upon sadism, solitary confinement was used as a form of punishment after her most recent suicide attempt. The public has been divided about Manning: the government and many others have regarded Manning as a traitor.
I applaud the president’s act of commutation, while noting, however, that it differs from an outright pardon that would have wiped Manning’s convictions off her record.
But let’s look at what Manning really did. She observed the most reprehensible deeds while serving in a country that was illegally invaded and occupied—Iraq–and she allowed her conscience to expose them and show the world the lies, deceptions and decrepitude practiced by a State that had taken it upon itself to be beholden to nothing but its own imperatives.
She should, in fact, be considered a hero for upholding the claims of humanity against the depredations of evil. And yet, I fear that the damage done to her during her incarceration will be enduring. And I also fear that she may not make it out of prison alive in the coming months.
I’m not so sure that even Orwell and Kafka foresaw how Power would twist Truth so effectively in the modern state: so many reasonable people so readily bow to a “war on terror” at the expense of individual liberties and reward the likes of Manning, Assange and Snowden with scorn instead of celebration for telling us what has really been going on in the name of our democracy.
Obama’s woefully tarnished legacy includes drone assassinations, murderous illegal invasions, the failure to shut down Guantanamo Bay, an increase in spending on nuclear arms, and the bombing of some of the poorest countries on earth.
Perhaps this act of clemency towards Chelsea Manning, a person who risked life and limb for the sake of conscience, will give us some little bit of the Hope and Change he so earnestly promised while running for the highest office of the land.
Dr. Garcia is an American-born writer and physician who resides in New Zealand.