I am Bradley Manning

Despite the harsh treatment meted out to them, there will always be people vying to expose evil and reveal the truth.

As the sentencing hearing gets underway for Bradley Manning, who faces 136 years in prison after being convicted of 20 charges — including espionage and theft — it’s hard not to feel that a travesty of justice is taking place.

Here is a person who had made a commitment to serve his country and was put in the difficult situation of deciding whether to follow protocol and turn a blind eye to abuses and war crimes carried out in his country’s name or to do the morally right thing and bring atrocities to light.

Bradley Manning chose to follow his conscience, knowing full well the consequences of going against the military machine and political landscape.

He decided that when he took oath, it wasn’t to serve his superiors in the army or the politicians in Washington, but his fellow countrymen who deserved to know that they were being misled and lied to. This is why he allegedly leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks that lifted the veil of secrecy on US foreign policy for the entire world to see, revealing the true nature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rather than being appreciative of his sacrifices, he has become a pariah in the eyes of a large segment of the US population.

Similarly, Edward Snowden, who had to leave the US in order to bring to people’s attention that their privacy was being violated indiscriminately by their own government, has also been castigated.

It is disconcerting to see how far the government has succeeded in brainwashing the masses to letting slide almost anything under the guise of national security. In fact, after its treatment of whistleblowers and prisoners of war, it would be highly impudent and hypocritical of the US to lecture any country about its human rights record ever again. This whole scenario is Orwellian in nature, evoking memories of 1984, which should be made mandatory reading for all young adults.

It seemed that rather than learning a lesson from the run-up to the Iraq war, where media organisations seemed to be acting solely as mouthpieces of the US government, instead of actively investigating its claims, the local media in the US once again seems to be repeating that very misstep. Most of the local American media has been outright hostile to Snowden and Manning.

From Joe Scarborough claiming Snowden looks like a weasel and asking his face be covered up, to David Gregory attacking a fellow journalist, asking Glen Greenwald on live television why he shouldn’t be charged with a crime for “aiding and abetting” Snowden, it seems as if the US media was engaged in their ‘Two Minutes Hate’ against the current Goldstein.

Despite the harsh treatment and all the hatred directed towards those who have done so before them, there will always be people who will try to expose evil and bring attention to the truth.

Bradley Manning sacrificed everything in order to bring to the people the truth, and that selfless action transcends all borders, nationalities and religions.

For this very reason, I am Bradley Manning, and you should be too.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2013.

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