coeus:
disobey:
Army private Bradley Manning, who provided classified military documents to WikiLeaks, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
(Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP via the New York Daily News)
If anyone deserves it, this man does. How great would it be if a Nobel Peace Prize recipient was being wrongfully held for years in solitary confinement, in federal prison, by another Nobel Peace Prize recipient?
Brilliant.
He’s far more deserving than Obama. This is truly the only chance the Nobel Committee has to redeem themselves.
Honestly, even if Bradley Manning wins the Nobel Peace Prize, I wouldn’t be entirely convinced that the whole thing isn’t a big fat farce. While Manning definitely did do something good (and it’s shameful that he has to suffer in prison for it), I wonder just how much peace it brought about? Not much, really. The US is still in its multiple wars, with troops all over the planet, and still hellbent on locking up people who go against its government. I understand that the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t meant to be given to those who actually bring about peace, but those who have attempted to, or who have bettered human relations in some way (that’s my understanding of it anyway). Manning hasn’t done this, and even though giving WIkileaks classified government documents is certainly honourable, I don’t think the actions have brought about any sort of change for the better at all.
Just my two cents on that.
I disagree. Bradley Manning exposed war crimes the US military commits frequently and without even a slap on the wrist, bringing awareness to the cruel nature of US occupation abroad. Bradley Manning’s extremely inhumane incarceration highlighted the human rights abuses the government undertakes against nonviolent protest under the guise of ‘national security’—those documents were unclassified and Manning’s actions served only to disseminate the information, which I believe is defended under not only free speech itself, but SCOTUS precedent on information privacy. Nonviolent acts of protest like Manning’s send some of the most powerful shocks to the system, as defiance itself as well as bringing awareness to the issues at hand, and while I wouldn’t compare him to any of the great nonviolent leaders of the 20th century, Manning is currently one of the most prominent individuals who was punished for serving honorably by the military industrial complex and his story resonates with both the left and the (non-neocon) right. I would also say that he also gave victims of those war crimes the most justice they could possibly get under the current conditions, given the stronghold the US military has on the ‘rule of law’ of the regions in which those seriously disturbed soldiers choose to rape and pillage.
I think the more important issue it the fact that Obama received the prize by virtue of a well-executed election campaign (over Manning, who was nominated that year, as well), which invalidates the fundamental integrity of the award, so I couldn’t care less about who gets the damn thing.
thecheekylibertarian 