bradley manning

it's easier to dismiss failures--or downright surrenders or utter from-the-start bullshit--on large, nebulous issues.  the failure to achieve national health care reform, with single payer or a national health service or something, anything, and instead settling for absurd insurance reform can be obfuscated with talk of the senate and big pharma and rationing and the best deal.  it was a failure, but where did it happen, exactly? yes, many people understand that obama was never in favor of anything interrupting the insurance industry violation of the american people, single payer, national health public option, anything--and he lied about it from the start--but that fact is not as obvious to many others as it should be, especially staunch obama supporters and democratic apparatchiki, because the fuck-up is spread all around, and the final failure is shared broadly.  bradley manning is a different story.  it's one man being tortured by the entire united states government through the u.s. military with full knowledge of everyone including the president.  the fact that president obama did not order an end to this crime clearly puts the blame exactly where it belongs.

here's the invaluable counterpunch with ellsberg on the manning situation.