At a press conference immediately following Manning’s sentencing, lead defense attorney David Coombs read a statement from the whistleblower himself. That statement is quoted in part below: "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," he said. "Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown our any logically based intentions [unclear], it is usually an American soldier that is ordered 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, the Japanese-American internment camps—to name a few. I am confident that many of our 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.’"
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:53:50 +0000
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