Wikileaks, Truth Tellers, and a Crisis of Conscience

*Originally published on July 27, 2010 by Sojourners. It has since been removed.

The subject that has captured my attention most has been the release of 90,000 documents on the war in Afghanistan. Apparently this is seen as some watershed moment, revealing how poorly that particular conflict has been waged. It's not like more than 70 combat veterans already made that case over two years ago. Where was the "24-hour news cycle" for that one?

It is safe to assume that PFC Manning, who is now incarcerated and facing numerous charges, is the same person who released these documents. We need to recognize that Manning did not simply wake up one morning and begin collecting data. He faced a crisis of conscience over knowing certain truths and being told to "shut up" about what he discovered. He is, by all intents and purposes, a whistleblower. There are laws in place to protect his actions, but since he is a service member, let's just go ahead and forget about that.

Here is what I don't get: What is empowering our enemies more — the fact that the events being described are occurring (which, by the way, insurgents in Afghanistan don't need Manning to tell them), or that an American service member, charged with protecting our Constitutional principles, has wrestled the truth to the foreground?

Originally published in Sojourners. Archived at https://civilianally.com/vita/2010/08/04/wikileaks-truth-tellers-and-a-crisis-of-conscience