The years since 9/11 have not been good for
government transparency. The wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, together with public acquiescence in any official
measures purported to fight terrorism, have emboldened American officialdom to
act with a secretive heavy-handedness unseen since the dark hours of the Cold
War. Manning should thank her lucky
stars she wasn’t convicted of the charge of aiding the enemy. Judging from the comments seen on various
news sites, Manning would have been put up against a wall and shot if the court
of public opinion had had jurisdiction.
Manning’s real crime, as with those of
Assange and Snowden, was that she embarrassed the powers that be. It’s that simple; the emperor does not like
to be told he’s naked when he’s convinced himself he’s clad in the finest
robes. Footage of U.S. helicopters
lobbing Hellfire missiles into residential neighborhoods undermines the claim we’re fighting for freedom from terror. The government’s aggressive pursuit of
whistleblowers, past and present, notorious and obscure, has created a
chilling effect on dissent.
A crucial point no one excoriating Manning,
Snowden, and Assange can substantiate is whether any U.S. or coalition military personnel
were directly harmed as a result of the WikiLeaks revelations. The combat videos have undermined the military's image, to be sure. The many thousands of diplomatic cables
address mainly mundane affairs, with the occasional embarrassing observation or
admission. But the true threat is to the
classification regime itself. Official
secrecy creates its own incentive to hide even innocuous information from the
citizenry, not to mention the ability to cover up possible war crimes. Secrecy permits us to go about our lives blithely
unaware of the brutal deeds routinely carried out in our name. It lets us believe our hands are clean.
Manning seems to elicit a rage in people
which Assange, Snowden, and the myriad other players in the WikiLeaks drama do
not seem to inspire. The reader comments
I’ve seen on Yahoo!, Reuters, AP, et al., leavened as they are with the sadly
inevitable homophobic slurs and prison rape jokes, leads me to conclude that
the real animus springs more from the transgressiveness of Manning’s persona
than his misdeeds. The underlying logic
runs like this: No wonder she’s a traitor to her country, she’s a traitor to
the masculine military ethos, to the very ideal of masculinity. It calls to mind the “Commies and queers”
witch hunts of the McCarthy era, when homosexuality was considered both
figuratively and literally subversive.
This single aspect of the Manning case reveals
an ugly truth of American culture. We
are a society of playground bullies. The
strong pick on and exploit the weak. Manning
is the kid whose lunch money was stolen, whose ass was lashed by snapping
towels in the high school locker room, who has gone throughout her life forced
to submerge her very identity under the crushing weight of heteronormativity. A lifetime of having to choke down one’s rage
every day takes its toll. It is
exceedingly difficult to feel loyalty to an order which denies you your basic
humanity.
No matter—It won’t be long before Chelsea
Manning fades from public memory. Our
collective amnesia will permit us to preserve our belief in our national
virtue. It will be easy to forget
because America is populated with consumers rather than citizens. We readily, perhaps too eagerly conflate
abstractions such as “freedom” and “democracy” with material placebos. Forced feedings at Guantanamo? Unarmed villagers massacred? No worries; the people in charge know what is
right and it’s not up to us to question them.
Besides, we’ve got the latest SUV in the garage, the house’s value has
gone up over the past year, and the kids each have a brand new iPhone 5. All is well and right with the world.
God bless America!
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