Bradley Manning and America's Shame

Whether you believe that Bradley Manning is guilty of treason or is a whistle blower like Daniel Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers,) I think anyone will have a hard time justifying the Obama Administration’s treatment of him.  According to all reports, Bradley Manning is being tortured; there is no other name for being placed in solitary confinement 23 hours a day and forced to stand naked before one’s captors.  This is not being done by some dark government in Pakistan, Tajikistan or Uganda; it is happening here, in the United States, home of the brave, land of the free.  This has been going on for almost a year and yet no charges have been brought forward and no opportunity given for Manning to face his accusers and defend himself as provided by the US Constitution.  He is just being forced to sit in solitary confinement with no contact with anyone from the outside world.  I thought this sort of thing was what happened in the dreaded “Communist” USSR.  We were supposed to be the good guys who lived in freedom and security knowing that we could not be held in prison without being charged and given the right to defend ourselves.  What happened? 

After 9/11, the Bush regime bullied Congress into passing laws that eliminate many of the freedoms we have for so long taken for granted.  Now, any one of us could be “disappeared” just like Bradley Manning and held indefinitely based on the new terrorist paranoia corrupting our country.  The fig leaves Obama flaunted during the election about bringing “change” to the country; about bringing back the protection of our constitutional and civil rights—that was all just so much hot air and window dressing.  If Obama really cared about these things, he would not stand for the torture of Bradley Manning for one minute.  I expect nothing from Republicans who long ago sided with the corporate class and care nothing about the rights of the common people but it shames me to see how low the Democrats have fallen.  I think it is time for another party to come forward, a people’s party of progressive thinkers who do not ignore science for their own convenience, who do not torture people, who provide public health care for all citizens, who do not make war on other countries that have not attacked us but work with the international body of the United Nations to resolve issues, who establish clear policies for protection and restoration of the environment for future generations, who show compassion and humility to all living beings and who establish clear regulations to control the rapacious, blind greed of the capitalists.