Citation
David Leigh and Luke Harding, WikiLeaks: From Wales to a US jail, via Iraq, the story of Bradley Manning, guardian.co.uk (01 February 2011)
Unnecessary nastiness — a blot on American honor
The article notes the unnecessarily nasty jail conditions Manning is forced to endure.
Most Americans will think that the “traitorous faggot” deserves it.
But that misses the point. He hasn’t been tried yet. Nor is torture a legally recognized characteristic of pre-trial detention or post-trial criminal punishment in the United States.
Instead, American military and intelligence culture is allowed to do what they will (as they did at Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo) in whatever thoughtlessly loutish fashion they want.
Scum rising
Scum rises to the top in both camps. Leaving us with the shades of gray that ethics were designed to brighten with color.
Brutishly-oriented louts like to argue that realism requires countering “badness” with brutality. But the fact is that cruelty merely begets more badness. Louts are just too historically inobservant to recognize that.
The fact that the rest of us often let them get away with dishonorable behavior doesn’t say much for our national consciousness, either.
Tagged: Bradley Manning, David Leigh, Iraq, Luke Harding, WikiLeaks, WikiLeaks from Wales to a US jail