Chelsea Manning: Help veterans by not sending us to kill for 'nationalist fairy tales'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY BRETT SAMUELS - 11/12/17 02:56 PM EST

Transgender activist and former soldier Chelsea Manning said Sunday that the United States should stop sending its troops overseas for the sake of "nationalist fairy tales."

Link to tweet

Manning has been an outspoken critic of President Trump, protesting at the White House when he banned transgender people from serving in the military. Others, including former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have condemned a rise in nationalism during Trump's administration.

Manning, who previously went by the first name Bradley, was jailed in 2010 for espionage after leaking national security information to WikiLeaks. In 2013, she revealed that she identifies as a woman.

She demanded and eventually received hormone replacement therapy while in prison, becoming a transgender rights activist.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/360024-chelsea-manning-help-veterans-by-not-sending-us-to-kill-for

[pangaia]

1. YES !!!!

[maxsolomon]

2. Right fucking on.

Every Veteran's Day I think this - and I keep my mouth shut through all the bathetic tributes to "protecting our freedoms" and "we wouldn't be here without their sacrifice". We're lying to ourselves because we can't handle the facts.

There's only a few wars where the military legitimately "protected our freedom":
1. Revolutionary War
2. Civil War
3. WW2

I'd like to hear arguments that our "way of life" was threatened in any conflicts since WW2. The best I've got is the Korean War which kept SK from falling to the genocidal Kim regime, and that was the freedom of Koreans that was under threat.

[mpcamb]

7. I like the notion of Armistice Day- celebrate the "cessation of hostilities",

Recalling how happy people are that a horrible destructive event is over.

[maxsolomon]

8. OK

that's not what I asked or was talking about, but I like Armistice Day, too.

[not fooled]

3. THE GOPee and the MIC know this

hence the exponential increase in faux patriotic public propaganda, e.g. paying sporting events and shaming opposition voices in the media.

There's trillions to be made in promoting unneeded military conflict, to say nothing of cowing political opponents to right wingism by portraying them as unpatriotic.

Straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

I hope the nation comes out of this fog of war within my lifetime.

[yurbud]

13. that's happened here too though some claim it's not a run up to war

[Baconator]

4. There are lots of smart, experienced people to listen to and debate the merits of national policy...

Manning is not one of them and can STFU....

[maxsolomon]

9. But do any of them have the guts to say what Manning did?

Nope, its all rah-rah go team protectin' our freedom, and the-DoD-budget-needs-to-be-increased.

We're not having any debate about the merits of our Militarism. We never have.

"Support Our Troops" = STFU about what we're asking them to do.

[LanternWaste]

10. Or, Manning may to continue to speak and you may choose to ignore.

Or, Manning may to continue to speak and you may choose to ignore.

I think my suggestion is a wee bit more practical and much more efficient... it's simply missing you ignoring Manning; a rather easy fix, I'd guess.

Then again, it is often much more fun to express our displeasure of an individual than it is to achieve the goals we allege.

[Baconator]

12. I ignore unethical idiots as a general rule...

I'm comfortable with that decision...

[olddad56]

5. I agree. I'm a Vietnam Vet, we were fighting for a myth.

"stopping the spread of communism".
they were fighting for their lives.

No wonder we lost.

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. This is one of those posts that I wish I could rec many times. It's so true.

[Adrahil]

11. I agree with Manning, but it's a shame...

Her efforts led to aggrandizing that fuckwit Julian Assange and gave him sensitive information that had nothing to do with her concerns. That was a terrible decision. And while I agree with her here, she's not saying anything other people haven't said and I can't see that she has any expertise here.