General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsManning deaths = zero
USA military/corporate/complex deaths = millions
Bradley Manning Sentencing Testimony Suggests WikiLeaks Not Responsible For Any Deaths
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/bradley-manning-sentence_n_3696501.html
---
leveymg
(36,418 posts)all the rest that we've heard is just spin used to justify the severity of the government's overreaction to these disclosures.
But, the truth, as Undersercretary of State Patrick Kennedy concluded, is that secrecy and classification is mostly there to keep embarrassing details out of public sight, and Manning's leaks had mostly a domestic political impact:
It's an appraisal that has been widely known for years, yet it has not stopped critics from repeating the charge that Assange and Manning have blood on their hands.
As the anonymous aide related to Reuters in 2011: "We were told (the impact of WikiLeaks revelations) was embarrassing but not damaging."
Igel
(35,300 posts)No, no. There's something missing in that equation. It doesn't balance.
Ah. I got it.
"Suggests" + confirmation bias = "proves."
There. Now the equation balances.
Most of the people claimed publicly to be at risk are informants in the boonies, one-off encounters or short-term contacts. To show "zero" deaths you'd have to show they were still alive or, if dead, their deaths were unrelated.
Go with the more accurate "no deaths proven to be attributable to Manning's leaks."
Yes, it's awkward, it's clunky. But "suggests" = "proven" has come to be a trope, an easy claim that requires no proof and is assumed to be true. It's mind rot. Handy rhetorical device for when victory is all and accuracy is nothing (which, sadly, often summarizes the current state of American public "thought."
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)But do the guys caught actually torturing and murdering people in our name get such sentences?