Bradley Manning Dismantled

Dear Mr. President,

You, Alexander, Clapper and all the faceless bureaucrats who keep America’s secrets, won yesterday. Bradley Manning finally broke, admitted bad judgment, apologized for the harm he did to his country, and pleaded for mercy. You could see it coming when the defense opened its sentencing case Monday, a tectonic shift from his attorney’s previous portrayal of him as an idealistic whistleblower to a smaller, sadder, confused, mentally incompetent boy with sexual identity problems. It was heartbreaking, a betrayal by everyone involved—the government, the defense and Bradley himself, for we need heroes and Manning as avatar for a new breed of whistleblower and truth-teller was dismantled before our eyes. But who can condemn him? Who among us could have endured what he did? Three years of brutal imprisonment, a sham, rigged trial, a sentence that was a foregone conclusion and the prospect of the rest of his life in prison for a 25-year-old could break anyone. We wanted the image of Bradley slouched in a chair in a trailer near Baghdad lip-synching Lady Gaga tunes as he downloaded America’s secrets. We wanted the idealism and enthusiasm of that young man who believed the truth would set us free, that it might even stop a war. Yesterday, that image was replaced by a nervous, frightened, near-tears young man who wondered how he could have believed a junior analyst “could change the world for the better…” But he did, in spite of everything, he did. We wanted the confident, articulate Bradley of February who gave an hour-long pre-trial statement with conviction, intelligence and courage, not yesterday’s Bradley who gave a hesitant, 3-minute apology for his crimes against the state. One psychiatrist testified that giving files to WikiLeaks was a “neurotic act of an idealist who thought he could end all wars.” But this is precisely what is needed for a person to become a hero, to perform courageous acts against overwhelming power. The pressure and circumstances may have caused Bradley to betray himself, his ideals, his sense of right and wrong, but it is not unlike—and certainly not as great—as your betrayal of us, Mr. President. What has been lost in the Manning trial is the truth he exposed—the war crimes, the cover-ups, the brutality and evil of war—but it is out there for all to see because of him and there will be more Bradley Mannings—and Edward Snowdens—to expose government lies and abuse of power. You won this round but the battle continues.