Bradley Manning has provided a statement explaining why he did what he did after seeing that the United States was devaluing human life, rather than upholding human rights as Americans claim to champion.

“The impressive statement reprinted below of Bradley Manning that will be included with his documents for parole is probably the best explanation he has given of why he took the actions he did,” stated national human rights leader Kevin Zeese in an email Thursday morning. “He put today’s times in the context of history and his actions in the context that people pay for the price for freedom.”

Zeese’s activism achievements include a long list of his human rights leadership roles:

Shift Wealth: Economic Democracy, Its Our Economy, (www.ItsOurEconomy.US)

Build power and resistance, Popular Resistance, (www.PopularResistance.org)

Democratize the Media, Clearing the FOG (Forces of Greed)

Radio (http://www.ClearingTheFOGRadio.org)

Video (http://www.ustream.tv/itsoureconomy) 

Zeese says that Manning “puts his actions in the context of history of “the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, and the Japanese-American internment camps” the actions of the United States today “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.’”

At the post sentencing press conference on August 21st, David Coombs read a statement from Bradley Manning that will be included in the documents that are included in his request for a pardon, explains Zeese.  

This request will go up to the president of the United States through the Secretary of the Army.  

When asked whether Bradley Manning would do the same thing over again, Coombs explained that Manning has a consistent morality and that he expected that would still feel compelled to take action to expose the actions being taken by the United States in its military and foreign policy.

Manning: I Understand The Heavy Price Of Freedom

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. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve 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 that (in) our efforts to meet the 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 dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy — the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, and the Japanese-American internment camps — to mention a few. I am confident that many of the 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; I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intent 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 a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.

- End of Bradley Manning’s statement. - 

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Prose by veteran human rights defender Dr. Anthony Marsella, that was emailed yesterday to Psychologists for Social Responsibility, are poignant:

First they came for the Indians, and I did not say anything, because I was not an Indian…

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to help me … And it was then I understood  I should have helped all those who were victims of abuse.

Image Credit: wthrockmorton