Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
As an anarchist, I can’t help but find layers of silliness to appreciate in President Barack Obama commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning. Chelsea nee Bradley Manning was the U.S. Army private who shared some 700,000 classified documents with WikiLeaks; documents that were often related to U.S. military operations throughout the Middle East. Manning had been sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison for those crimes, though the taxpayers did pay for her gender reassignment surgery; which seems rather punitive to taxpayers, who are government’s perennial victims anyway. Manning will be out of the male prison she’s been sentenced to solitary confinement in by summer.
The president’s move was greeted with praise from people and groups one would predictably think would praise it.
“’Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama,’” Edward Snowden was quoted as saying in Andrew Beatty’s AFP story on the matter.
Snowden, Beatty goes on to write, wasn’t included in Obama’s list of pardons and commutations yesterday. General David Patreaus was also not on the list of pardons nor was there a pre-emtive pardon for Hillary Clinton, two other known mishandlers of classified information. The ACLU and WikiLeaks also expressed praise and gratitude for Obama’s action.
The backlash is as predictable in its content as its source is.
“’This is just outrageous,’ said House Speaker Paul Ryan. ’Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets. President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,’
“Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who is tipped as a possible future leader of the party, expressed fury at Obama’s decision, saying ‘we ought not treat a traitor like a martyr. I don’t understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers, and allies,’” reads a portion of the AFP story.
Oh, the delectable, flaky layers of statist indignation here – like a perfectly baked biscuit. How dare a lowly cog, a private, think to question, let alone try to upset the execution of that most statist of exercises, warfare, by trying to alert the American public to the fact their leaders are lying to them almost non-stop about said war and all matters related to it? Then, to make matters worse, how dare one of government’s most devout worshippers in history commit sacrilege by commuting the sentence of this “traitor?” In my mind’s eye, I see Republican outrage at this being accompanied by much gnashing of teeth and perhaps the rending of some garments as their minds struggle with the madness of it all. A person betrays their state and the state punishes him, then the head of that same state commutes the punishment thereby betraying the state yet again – the horror, the horror.
While conservative outrage is adorable, for my entertainment dollar, I find leftist rationalizing yields far more bang for the buck. Both Manning and Snowden are known to have shared some very sensitive, classified material with WikiLeaks. Manning got her sentence commuted, Snowden is still holed up in Russia after fleeing first to Hong Kong and then Russia after exposing the NSA’s massive, unconstitutional, secret domestic spying operations. While their crimes are materially the same, the government has to make distinctions. Some have speculated that it was two suicide attempts and being described as in generally frail mental health that swayed Obama to pardon Manning. I say such speculation is wrong-headed; the real motivation for Manning’s release was hinted at – dare I say leaked- last week.
“’Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,’ Earnest said. ‘Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary and sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy,’” White House Spokesman Josh Earnest was quoted as saying in Gregory Korte’s USA Today piece of Jan. 13.
Statism is a cult, this is a fact and not just a cool group on Facebook. Religious cults have rules and rituals that must be obeyed, and it is here that Snowden has sinned. Manning allowed himself to be put through the ritual of trial and conviction, and displayed sufficient contrition to appease the gods. Manning? Manning is Prometheus; stealing the god’s own fire and showing it to us mere mortals. For that, he can expect to have his liver ripped out each and every day for all eternity.
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