generalspeaking

Errant Turn

"I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I'm sorry that they hurt the United States. At the time of my decision, as you know, I was dealing with a lot of issues, issues that are ongoing and continue to affect me.
"Although a considerable difficulty in my life, these issues are not an excuse for my actions. I understood what I was doing and the decisions I made. However, I did not fully appreciate the broader effects of my actions. Those factors are clear to me now."
U.S. Private Bradley Manning

Not his fault, poor young man. He was struggling with his sexual identity. A situation made far more complex by US military law that wanted to know nothing about the sexual orientation of its military members. Clearly the fault lies with society, with the confusion that it foists upon those considered not mainstream-gendered, and with a military apparatus that preferred not to complicate already complex relations between administration and human relations.

And then again, there is always childhood trauma to go back to; a mother who was raising a son while in a constant alcoholic stupor, and the very real possibility his "negative" personality traits represented a hallmark of fetal alcohol syndrome and Asperger's syndrome. That fairly well targets a full spectrum of social disadvantage and inherited misery. So, really -- not his fault.

The vulnerable state of this young man's persona came head-to-head with the "hyper-masculine" atmosphere prevailing in the military. His gender-identity disorder came full circle; a woman trapped in a man's body. And nowhere to turn. No release from pent-up confused emotions, no relief from the pressure, no one to confide to, nowhere to hide.

But it was within his capabilities, given his position, to take what others hid and reveal them. That might be construed as personal revenge against a system that made a mockery of the man uncertain of his malehood, feeling that nature and nurture had conspired to turn him inside out and upside down and spit him out a miserable hybrid whom society would despise.

Releasing diplomatic cables, war-zone logs and videos represented to someone who now claims to fully understand what he constructed in a monstrous lapse of intelligent judgement, a blueprint for emotional release, getting back at the system and at the society that made him something he was not and would not accept just what he was

He would prefer, at this juncture, not to be sentenced for life in prison, for the very thought of such a dread ending to a life deserving of some kind of break after serving a quarter of a century as a confused and vulnerable being, he would appreciate an life-saving alternative. Yes, he still disagrees about the choices his government made and the war its military fought.

But he realizes now that other alternatives were open to him, less spectacular and certainly far less punishing both to the country and to himself, as hapless victim of circumstances beyond his paltry control. He would like, please, to be permitted to attend college. Which would give him the opportunity to become a more "productive member of society".

In any event, his commanding officers should bear the brunt of responsibility for what poor Bradley Manning committed in betraying the trust of his country. Their oversight of the mentally-distressed young man should have yielded the realization that he was in no condition to be trusted and to be entrusted with the vital data he was permitted to manipulate.

So there, y'all.

Labels: Bias, Bigotry, Biology, Charity, Crimes, Discrimination, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 17, 2013