Bush and Manning

Published in La Jornada
(Mexico) on 4 June 2013
by Pedro Miguel (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Stuart Taylor. Edited by Philip Lawler.
In 2001, George Walker Bush organized the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which led to the deaths of 2,234 Americans — 60 of whom died in 2013 — 44 Brits, 644 individuals from other occupying powers and tens of thousands of Afghans. Back then, the aim of the war was supposedly to guarantee the safety of the U.S. citizenry; however, attacks organized by Islamic fundamentalists — which is how the U.S. government classified the Boston marathon bombers — continue to kill people on U.S. soil in 2013.

Two years after deploying armed forces in Afghanistan, Bush began the invasion of Iraq, where 4,487 Americans were killed and more than 30,000 suffered considerable injuries.

Upon taking a closer look, Bush is much more deserving of the accusation of risking American lives than the soldier Bradley Manning could ever be, the latter having never organized any war or even, as far as we know, fired a single round during his stay in Iraq. What is relevant about his time in that unfortunate Arab nation was, according to his accusers in a military court, that he provided WikiLeaks with thousands of documents from the Pentagon. Thanks to WikiLeaks, the world confirmed the extent of the crimes committed by Washington in these two wars. For example, WikiLeaks discovered that Namir Noor-Eldeen, a reporter for Reuters, was murdered in cold blood along with 10 others by the crew of an American attack helicopter. It was also discovered that the invading forces killed more than 150,000 unarmed civilians and that many of these individuals were classified as enemies killed in combat. Furthermore, it got out that the occupying forces handed over countless prisoners to the Iraqi police, knowing that they would be killed or tortured.

This information could have been used to reform the U.S. military justice system by revealing to Washington that military intervention was used to support officials in Baghdad who were more abusive than Saddam, according to the Iraq News Network, and to strengthen the necessary social and media surveillance of these authorities. The WikiLeaks information could have been used to consolidate the democratic principles that the U.S. has always demanded.

If such principles had been upheld, then Bush and his collaborators, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, among others, would have appeared in court a long time ago for lying to society, destroying two countries, senselessly leading thousands of young Americans to their deaths and tolerating the breaking of international humanitarian law, not least for the benefit of the businesses these individuals were involved with — as in the case of Cheney.

Nonetheless, after leaving their administration positions in Washington, these individuals subtly slipped into the shadows — except for Bush, who sometimes gives us something to talk about when he goes for a ride on his bike on his Texas ranch.

Manning wasn’t so lucky. He was arrested on May 26, 2010. Having been initially held in Kuwait, he was sent to the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, two months later. There, he was subjected to a prison-like regime, comparable to torture, for months. He was locked up in a 6-square-meter cell, deprived of all contact with the outside world, sleep and his contact lenses. He was naked, put under bright lights, watched 24/7 by security cameras and stripped of any reading or writing materials. According to the defendant’s lawyers, the purpose of the abuse was to pressure Manning into incriminating Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, against whom the U.S. justice system has not managed to build a plausible case.

Yesterday, at the Fort Mead military base near Washington, the court martial against Manning began. As for Bush, he still goes for bike rides on his Texas ranch.


En 2001 George Walker Bush organizó la invasión y la ocupación de Afganistán, en las que han muerto dos mil 234 estadunidenses (60 de ellos, en lo que va de 2013), 44 británicos, 644 individuos de otras potencias ocupantes y decenas de miles de afganos. En aquel entonces se dijo que la idea era garantizar la seguridad de sus conciudadanos, pero en 2013 los atentados organizados por fundamentalistas islámicos (así clasificó el gobierno gringo a los bombazos del maratón de Boston) siguen matando gente en territorio de Estados Unidos.

Dos años después de lanzar a las fuerzas armadas sobre Afganistán, Bush emprendió la invasión de Irak, en donde cuatro mil 487 de sus hombres encontraron la muerte y más de 30 mil sufrieron heridas de distinta consideración.

Si uno lo mira bien, Bush es mucho más merecedor de la acusación de poner en riesgo vidas de estadunidenses de lo que podría serlo el soldado Bradley Manning, quien no organizó guerra alguna y quien, hasta donde se sabe, no disparó un solo tiro durante su estancia en Irak. Lo relevante de su estadía en esa desgraciada nación árabe fue, según afirman sus acusadores en una corte militar, el haber entregado a Wikileaks miles de documentos del Pentágono. Gracias a ellos el mundo corroboró la extensión de los crímenes cometidos por Washington en los dos países invadidos. Supo, por ejemplo, que el reportero de Reuters Namir Noor-Eldeen fue asesinado a sangre fría, junto con otras diez personas, por los tripulantes de un helicóptero estadunidense de ataque; o que las fuerzas invasoras mataron a más de 150 mil civiles inermes y que contabilizaron a muchos de ellos como enemigos muertos en combate; o que las fuerzas ocupantes entregaron innumerables prisioneros a la policía iraquí, a sabiendas de que serían asesinados o torturados.

Esa información habría podido ser de suma utilidad para dar eficacia a la justicia militar de Estados Unidos, para crear conciencia en Washington de que la intervención militar había servido para entronizar en Bagdad a funcionarios que se comportaban peor que Saddam (como lo formuló la Iraqui News Network) y para fortalecer la necesaria vigilancia social y mediática sobre las autoridades, es decir, para consolidar las reglas democráticas que Estados Unidos reclama desde siempre.

Por cierto: si tales reglas fueran realmente vigentes, hace rato que Bush y sus colaboradores Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney y Condoleezza Rice, entre otros, habrían tenido que comparecer ante una corte por mentir a la sociedad, por destruir dos países, por llevar a miles de muchachos estadunidenses a una muerte sin sentido y por tolerar una corrupción monumental con los contratos de las guerras, si no es que, como en el caso de Cheney, por beneficiar con ellos a empresas en las que estaba involucrado.

Sin embargo, tras dejar sus puestos en Washington, estos individuos partieron a un anonimato millonario. Salvo Bush, quien a veces da de qué hablar cuando sale a pasear en bicicleta por su rancho de Texas.

Manning, en cambio, fue arrestado el 26 de mayo de 2010. Inicialmente internado en Kuwait, dos meses después se le envió a la base de los marines en Quantico, Virginia. Allí fue sometido durante muchos meses a un régimen carcelario equiparable a la tortura: encerrado en una celda de dos metros por tres, privado de todo contacto con el mundo exterior, desnudo, privado de sueño, alumbrado y sometido a cámaras de vigilancia las 24 horas, privado de sus lentes, despojado de todo material de lectura o escritura. El propósito del maltrato, de acuerdo con los abogados del acusado, fue presionar a Manning para que incriminara a Julian Assange, el fundador de Wikileaks, contra quien los aparatos de justicia de Estados Unidos no han logrado construir una acusación verosímil.

Ayer, en la base militar del Fuerte Meade, cerca de la capital estadunidense, empezó el juicio de guerra contra el soldado Manning. Bush, por su parte, sigue paseando en bicicleta en su rancho de Texas.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

Hot this week

India: Trump’s Tariffs Have Hit South Korea and Japan: India Has Been Wise in Charting a Cautious Path

Germany: Bad Prospects

Singapore: The US May Win Some Trade Battles in Southeast Asia but Lose the War

Canada: Canada Must Match the Tax Incentives in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Topics

Canada: How To Avoid ICE? Follow the Rules

Canada: Trump Doesn’t Hold All the Cards on International Trade

Ireland: The Irish Times View on Trump and Ukraine: a Step in the Right Direction

Australia: As Trump Turns His Back on Renewables, China Is Building the Future

Germany: Bad Prospects

Germany: Musk Helps the Democrats

India: Peace Nobel for Trump: It’s Too Long a Stretch

Ecuador: Monsters in Florida

Related Articles

Cuba: Summit between Wars and Other Disruptions

Germany: LA Protests: Why Are So Many Mexican Flags Flying in the US?

Mexico: US Pushes for Submission

Mexico: The Trump Problem

Afghanistan: Defeat? Strategic Withdrawal? Maneuver?