Monday, June 14, 2010
Solitude
I love my solitude but it is not how I want to live. Solitude is alone it is a subtle form of isolation. I want to live in the world where others in multitude live. It is not always clean and bright it is not always filled with the healthy the lovely or the clean. It is often very messy full of germs and unfamiliar sights. Sometimes it is disgusting sometimes painful, other times joyous uplifting and loving but most often it seems chaotic swift dramatic. A life surrounded by multitudes cannot be controlled or swayed rather it sways me it moves me to unknown places. Places I may fear, places I may need to see to be free. And when I drift into my solitude I can reflect on life as I see it; the universe and everything in it interdependent on each other, bound to each other.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Truth is Classified
The truth is classified and has been for many years. The military has and does keep many things classified. Troop numbers, movements and locations are classified. Identity of agents, operatives and recourses are classified. Intelligence briefings, military plans and communications are classified. Along with the many things a government will classify so do they classify mistakes, snafus, operations that have failed, out of control spending and war crimes. Anyone connected the military or a government agency that takes or releases classified material is subject to arrest and prosecution under the law. It makes no difference if the released material is about a political blunder, criminal activity, high treason or war crimes, the person doing the releasing and those receiving the classified material are subject to arrest.
Today a U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst was arrested in connection to a release of a classified video WikiLeaks.org of a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad. After watching the video it is no surprise to me that the military would want to classify the video and would be very upset with its release. Even if the army’s claim that “the video is taken out of context” is true, it still reveals a jaded and morbid attitude of our men and women in combat. An attitude I found prevalent in Vietnam and is probably prevalent in all wars. The enemy must be objectified in order to kill them, and when the enemy is not easy to identify whole populations become objectified. War at best is barbaric at worst is carnage and slaughter without limits no real view of war is easily swallowed.
The debate in the news about this video and about this arrest is pretty much the same old debate around our wars since Vietnam; Baby killer/Fascist/ Nazi/tea-bagger from the left, gook lovers/commies/un-American /traitor from the right and on and on. I propose we are missing the real debates around war and around this story.
Just few ideas for legitimate debate.
Can our government, can our citizen body handle the reveling of truths about what goes on in our politics in our military our judiciary and law enforcement, those truths that are not strategically vital but are deemed sensitive or classified in order to hide our failings or our mistakes? I believe we can.
In this modern age of warfare are not the commanders and higher ranking officers responsible for the attitudes and actions of the personnel in the field? With our advanced technology cannot they pierce the “fog of war” with greater accuracy? I believe they are accountable and hold a greater responsibility. I believe, based just on the WikiLeaks video release that our commanders have incredible insight as to what is happing on the ground level.
Should the public be able to view such videos? I believe they should be. The notion that “we need to protect the public from such images” is like a parent protecting a child, we are not children.
Will such videos harm our nation? In the short run they may, in the long run I believe they will reveal our resolve for truthfulness and show to the world the true caricature of the American people.
Do we as citizens have the right to support “the war” or oppose “the war” without entering into a childish debate as to our sanity integrity or worthiness to be a citizen of the United States? I believe we do. In any form of debate if we are losing it is better to sharpen our debating skills and gather more facts to prove our points than to digress into a battle of insults.
As for Bradley Manning the Army Specialist who allegedly released classified information. If it is true he was boasting in instant messages to a convicted hacker about how he passed on the video, then he was acting foolish and played a leading role in his arrest. If the military had arrested him two months ago without charging him and not notifying his family keeping him “under wraps” as many of the stories in the news indicate, shame on those military leaders involved. That would be an illegal action according to the “Code of Military Justice” that would lead us back to the “Patriot Act” making just about any action by law enforcement and military intelligence legal. But that is another story.
I am glad to live in a country where once something like that video was released there is little the government did to quash its dissemination. The video is still up on YouTube there are plenty of discussions in chat in blogs and all over the internet about this event. I am a little concerned that others with “sensitive / classified” material that is “embarrassing” to the government or the military and will reveal a serious wrong or corrupt illegal act may be hesitant in releasing such information to the public. I am only a little concerned. I have faith that America has a great many patriots on all sides of the political spectrum. Just remember, don’t brag about it in a text message or an email.
Today a U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst was arrested in connection to a release of a classified video WikiLeaks.org of a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad. After watching the video it is no surprise to me that the military would want to classify the video and would be very upset with its release. Even if the army’s claim that “the video is taken out of context” is true, it still reveals a jaded and morbid attitude of our men and women in combat. An attitude I found prevalent in Vietnam and is probably prevalent in all wars. The enemy must be objectified in order to kill them, and when the enemy is not easy to identify whole populations become objectified. War at best is barbaric at worst is carnage and slaughter without limits no real view of war is easily swallowed.
The debate in the news about this video and about this arrest is pretty much the same old debate around our wars since Vietnam; Baby killer/Fascist/ Nazi/tea-bagger from the left, gook lovers/commies/un-American /traitor from the right and on and on. I propose we are missing the real debates around war and around this story.
Just few ideas for legitimate debate.
Can our government, can our citizen body handle the reveling of truths about what goes on in our politics in our military our judiciary and law enforcement, those truths that are not strategically vital but are deemed sensitive or classified in order to hide our failings or our mistakes? I believe we can.
In this modern age of warfare are not the commanders and higher ranking officers responsible for the attitudes and actions of the personnel in the field? With our advanced technology cannot they pierce the “fog of war” with greater accuracy? I believe they are accountable and hold a greater responsibility. I believe, based just on the WikiLeaks video release that our commanders have incredible insight as to what is happing on the ground level.
Should the public be able to view such videos? I believe they should be. The notion that “we need to protect the public from such images” is like a parent protecting a child, we are not children.
Will such videos harm our nation? In the short run they may, in the long run I believe they will reveal our resolve for truthfulness and show to the world the true caricature of the American people.
Do we as citizens have the right to support “the war” or oppose “the war” without entering into a childish debate as to our sanity integrity or worthiness to be a citizen of the United States? I believe we do. In any form of debate if we are losing it is better to sharpen our debating skills and gather more facts to prove our points than to digress into a battle of insults.
As for Bradley Manning the Army Specialist who allegedly released classified information. If it is true he was boasting in instant messages to a convicted hacker about how he passed on the video, then he was acting foolish and played a leading role in his arrest. If the military had arrested him two months ago without charging him and not notifying his family keeping him “under wraps” as many of the stories in the news indicate, shame on those military leaders involved. That would be an illegal action according to the “Code of Military Justice” that would lead us back to the “Patriot Act” making just about any action by law enforcement and military intelligence legal. But that is another story.
I am glad to live in a country where once something like that video was released there is little the government did to quash its dissemination. The video is still up on YouTube there are plenty of discussions in chat in blogs and all over the internet about this event. I am a little concerned that others with “sensitive / classified” material that is “embarrassing” to the government or the military and will reveal a serious wrong or corrupt illegal act may be hesitant in releasing such information to the public. I am only a little concerned. I have faith that America has a great many patriots on all sides of the political spectrum. Just remember, don’t brag about it in a text message or an email.
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