These motives are entirely clear, understandable,
and imminently sane. In fact, Manning's actions reflect a mind far more
healthy and stable than the diseased brains in charge of the War
Machine, who compulsively, continually distort reality to an extreme,
pathological degree in order to justify -- to others and, presumably, to themselves -- their own murderous, brutal depravity.
Yet it is Bradley Manning who must be examined
to see if he is mentally "unstable." Yes, of course, that's it: he must
be crazy. Why else would anyone -- especially an American (and a
real American, not one of those with, you know, funny names or dark skin), especially a
soldier --
want to challenge the authority and embarrass the benevolent leaders
who protect us and care for us? To those pathetic wretches afflicted
with the pathologies of power, Manning's actions -- courageous, noble,
humane -- literally make no sense. Therefore, he
must be mentally diseased.
There are also some practical considerations at play here, of
course. If Manning were to be declared criminally insane, he could be
locked up indefinitely, right away -- no need for a messy trial that
might cause more embarrassments for our imperial minders.
In any case, it's good for the prosecutors -- or shall we say, the
persecutors -- of Bradley Manning to have the "nuthouse option" in hand
among the vast array of "legal" weaponry they are bringing to bear
against the young man. And even if the matter proceeds to trial, these
stories about Manning's "shaky mental health" will help immunize any
unseemly testimony he might give in the dock. Official shoulders will
merely shrug at new revelations: "Well, what do you expect? He's crazy,
isn't he? He'll say anything." And the corporate media will doubtless
shrug along with them.
As the Guardian notes, the Chinese elite -- following the model of the
old Soviet Union in its later years -- take the same approach to
troublemakers:
They snatched Liao Meizhi on her
birthday, dragging her off the street and into a dirty blue van as
others held back her husband.
It was only two months later, when a stranger
knocked on the door, that her family learned where she had been taken.
The man said he had just been discharged from a nearby mental hospital –
and that Liao was being held there against her will. Her husband
insists she has no psychiatric problems ...
Researchers believe she is among a growing
number of people wrongly detained in psychiatric institutions after
clashing with local officials. One activist has compiled a database of
more than 500 such cases.
Some victims have been held for a decade. Those
freed describe being forcibly treated – with electro-convulsive therapy
and powerful anti-psychotic drugs – for health problems they never had.
"In the last few years you have been seeing more and more cases involving petitioners and whistle blowers
– 'the awkward squad' – [often when] the authorities have tried other
punishments or sanctions to make them stop and nothing else has worked,"
said Robin Munro, author of China's Psychiatric Inquisition and a
research associate at SOAS law school. "Finally they really try to scare
them to hell by putting them in mental hospitals."
Well, it worked for Jose Padilla, the American citizen snatched, without
charges, on American soil, and held, without charges, for years,
while being subjected to mind-breaking tortures for
his alleged terrorist activities. The charges against him began with
dramatically broadcast claims of nuclear terrorism aimed at the US and
ended with the broken man's conviction on lesser charges of aiding
foreign groups involved in foreign conflicts, far from American shores.
Yet even here, the judge in the case declared that "there was no
evidence linking [Padilla] to specific acts of terrorism anywhere or
that their actions had resulted in death or injury to anyone" -- even as
she handed the torture victim a 17-year prison sentence,
as Winter Patriot reports.
Manning will perhaps escape the extremities of torture doled out to
Padilla; he has at least been formally charged and has access to legal
counsel -- something denied to Padilla for years during this torment.
But make no mistake: the depraved minds in charge of our morally insane
empire seek to break him, one way or another -- as an example to us all.
For your consideration: two stories, from opposite sides of the world, concerning the attitude of Power toward those who would question its wisdom:
