Pfc Bradley Manning, who is struggling right now for having the number of years he is going to spend behind bars reduced (from a shocking 90) has yesterday apologized for hurting “people” and “the United States” when leaking hundreds of thousands of mostly secret documents to WikiLeaks. Sure, as a soldier, he has broken his Oath of Enlistment,

“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962),”

but what about enemies within? According to Associated Press, “[h]e said he realizes now that he should have worked more aggressively’ inside the system’ to draw attention to his concerns about the way the war was being waged.” As far as we know, he tried to draw attention, but failed time and again. Take, for instance, the most famous Collateral Murder incident of an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad on 12 July 2007 in which a dozen of civilians were killed including two Reuters employees. Reuters had called for an investigation of the incident and tried hard to get the video. While the video and, in particular, audio recording speak for themselves, the army investigation report on the two Reuters journalists can be seen here [pdf]. Manning has reportedly tried to draw attention from “inside the system”, but in vain. When he wanted to discuss the video with his superior, she claimed, according to his own testimony, that it wasn’t authentic.

His acts were based on Kant’s Categorical Imperative. In breaking his oath, as a soldier, he has rendered all of us invaluable service.

See a transcript of Manning’s remarks here [pdf].

15 August 2013 @ 7:38 am.

Last modified August 16, 2013.