Bradley Manning was born on December 17, 1987. Years later,
the Crescent, Oklahoma native, who is transgender, was granted the right to be
legally recognized as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. After joining the Army,
Manning was sent to Iraq in 2009. There she had access to classified information
that she described as profoundly troubling. Manning gave much of this
information to WikiLeaks and was later arrested after her actions were reported
to the U.S. government by a hacker confidant. On July 30, 2013, Manning was
found guilty of espionage and theft, but not guilty of aiding the enemy. In
August 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
There are various
arguments for and against the act of Chelsea Manning. Many people believe she
broke ethical code of morality for her own people and country by revealing
military secrets to unauthorized person. At the same time, there are many
people/ philosophers in our society who believe Chelsea Manning has done nothing
wrong. She was kind of whistle blower and was doing her job as an alert citizen
to let people know what’s going on.
One of the similar thoughts
were shared by well-known American philosopher Noam Chomsky. In “The Laura
Flanders Show”, in the support of Chelsea Manning, he is recorded commenting on
Chelsea Manning as, “Bradley Manning should
be regarded as a hero”. That is his personal
view but I am just astonished by the statement which considers Manning as a hero? I couldn’t agree
with the view presented by Mr. Chomsky. Why she is to be considered as hero?
For putting
numerous lives of own colleagues on risk? Mr. Chomsky arguing
in the same show says, “He is doing what
an honest, decent citizens be doing letting the population know what you're
good with people who rule you were doing”. There is one problem with his
argument, military does have its own rules and regulations, and people putting
on uniform under the oath have an obligation to stick with that. If a person
can’t obliged, that person shouldn’t put on the uniform. Leaking nearly three-quarters of a
million of sensitive military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks can’t make
her hero or decent citizen but some kind of traitor. Who can take the guarantee
that WikiLeaks wasn’t /isn’t conspiring against U.S.? That’s why that leaking was bad for the
country and military, which can’t make her hero.
Probably she thinks her believe is everything, what about
others believe who put on the uniform to protect this country and people? What about her own oath to the military and this
country? Doesn’t she feel like betraying own country? I feel like this
is all about selfishness of Manning and her own thought process rather than following
a morality after putting on the uniform.
Because
of the above facts and analysis, I can’t condone the act of Manning against
military and this country. I also do not agree with the view of Mr. Noam
Chomsky to consider Chelsea Manning as a hero, my ethics won’t allow me to do
so.
References
http://www.biography.com/people/chelsea-manning-21299995#synopsis
https://chomsky.info/20131010/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
https://twitter.com/xychelsea
https://www.chelseamanning.org/ourwork/supporters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqfi4au3cKo
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