JUSTICE FOR ALL

One young man about to start his seventh month in solitary confinement for obeying the law. . . .

Another charged with murder for blowing the whistle on U.S. Army murderous "game hunters" in Afghanistan, while the "game hunters" remain unindited. . . .

Bradley Manning is suspected of having leaked classified information about
U.S. war crimes. Had Manning--a twenty-one year old soldier--NOT leaked those documents he would have been committing a crime. He would have been an accessory after the fact, guilty of misprision of a felony: very serious crimes under American civil and military law.

So he is in jail: in solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Corps base in Virginia. Starting his seventh month in solitary.

Manning hasn't been charged with any crime. Why not? Because if the military or Mr. Obama's government charges him with a crime, his defense will be that he was obeying the law by doing so, and that all those who have tried to keep what he uncovered secret are the guilty parties.

(Of course Manning has only been held in solitary confinement, not charged with any crime, for six months, going on seven. Mr. Obama's prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp have been held--some of them--for nine years now, not charged with any crime. That's justice, American style.)

And the young man who told his father about the kill-for-sport Army "game hunters" in Afghanistan: that young man is charged with murdering an Afghan civilian. But the Sergeant and the others who organised the murder games have not been charged with anything. Only the heroic young man who "ratted" on them. And when that young man's father tried to tell the U.S. Army what was going on, he was told to get lost.

The U.S. has given more than 200,000 young men an opportunity to become murderers. Six month tours, then more six month tours. Learn to kill. Murder is your job, boys. And now go home and be civilised. That's the American way.

In World War II, the men who fought had at least a sense--a legitimate sense--that they were fighting aggression and--in the Nazis' case--evil. When the war was over, they came home to something that could be called civilisation, having served in what could be seen as a good cause.

Since then--Korea, Vietnam, our proxy wars in Nicaragua, Angola, Bush the first's oil war, Bush the second's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Obama's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan--our cause has been greed, our principle arrogance, our creed simple murder.

In 1945 American troops came home to a mostly civilised country. Our government created the Marshall Plan, to rebuild Europe: and the Marshall plan may well be the greatest, most wonderful social undertaking in human history.

Troops who come home now from our wars have learned to be racist bigots, or to enjoy killing, or both. And they come home to a selfish country, dedicated to greed and hatred and violence. There are many more guns in the United States than in the middle east. Our returning warriors, used to killing, will really be coming "home."

It's frightening. And what is more frightening is that so many people who should care about all this--good, decent people--have stuck their heads in the sand. They don't want to hear the bad news. They think they can hide. Maybe they think things won't explode in the United States before they have a chance to die.

But what about their children?

Bradley Manning is a hero. So is the young man who was frightened by the crazy murderers he lived with.

I'm not sure that, come election day this year, we have a chance to vote for a change in America, for a change to a better, more civilised way of life. But maybe if we vote down the extremists on the right this year, we can at least keep things from getting worse. And maybe someday we will re-learn honor and decency, and will find candidates for high office worthy of our support.

I had thought that Mr. Obama was a bright and good man. He isn't. Next round, I will vote for Bradley Manning for president. And for that other young man for vice-president. Even if they aren't on the ballot.