| by Dr. Jeffrey Lant I have been thinking a lot lately about Eddie Slovik. He was a private in the US Army during World War II and had the unsavory distinction to be the only soldier of the Great Republic to be court-martialled and executed for desertion since the American Civil War. Eddie Slovik was the kind of guy it was very easy to ignore, unless you were one of the householders in the Detroit, Michigan area; then, you needed to be alert, because he was probably burgling your house or stealing your car. He was a man whose life was going nowhere until he met and in November 1942 married a good woman he adored named Antoinette Wisniewski. Shortly thereafter he was drafted for service but his criminal record made him classified as unfit for duty in the US military... later, as the nation pushed for victory and needed every man, he was re-classified as fit for duty... and sent to France, where he discovered fear, desertion, execration, execution -- by no means the only man who deserted... but the only man who paid the supreme price for doing so. But consider this, Eddie Slovik never killed a man, never hurt a man, never took the necessary secrets of the Great Republic and gave them to our sworn enemies. No, Eddie Slovik never did any of these things... yet he was executed, his American born and bred body riddled with American bullets, his blood dappling the snows of newly liberated France where the crucial question resonates to this day and beyond: did we overcharge Pfc Eddie Slovik for a sin that was venial, not cardinal, an incident that hurt him, but no one else? Another PFC, a different kind of war. Now meet another Private First Class -- Bradley Manning, young like Slovik, just 24 years old. A native of main street Crescent, Oklahoma...slight, fey, a malevolent Peter Pan who came to work day after day, wearing the insignia of the Great Republic, wearing her proud uniform, whose sworn duty was preserving, maintaining, defending, advancing America's interests... and yet every hour of every day engaged in systematic betrayal, disloyalty, treason ... the man who allegedly alone accessed over 700,000 sensitive, classified, ultra-private documents... which he then released to foes who wish us ill in all climes and places. And yet these foes did not seek out PFC Manning. PFC Manning contacted them on his own volition... And so we come to know him... sworn to defend the nation and all his fellow citizens, selected treason as his code; reckoning that the betrayal of his nation was more important than defending his nation. educated himself in treason. He was his own tutor of hate, disdain, and disloyalty to America. having discovered the means of accessing sensitive data he had no right to peruse, much less disburse, gathered these data in epochal proportions. He didn't want just to hurt America... he wanted to humiliate her, harming as many of his fellow citizens as he could. took hundreds of thousands of these sensitive documents, as many as 700,000 of these documents, and offered them to WikiLeaks, an organization which breaks every law to release every sensitive document it can; disclosure always trumping in their self-sanctified minds all sense, sensitivity, confidentiality, privacy; all things we value and rely upon. released documents which had severe implications for our emissaries, agents, representatives and all their families. The very lives of America's people at home and abroad were jeopardized -- are jeopardized now -- because of one man's adamant, unyielding belief that America needed chastisement.... and that that chastisement was suitable and particular work and high mission for PFC Manning, self-appointed to do what the nation would regard as heinous, inexplicable, despicable. And so PFC Manning became a man of infamy doing a thing of disgust. Meet Bradley Manning, a man with a dark mission. Bradley E. Manning was born innocent on December 17, 1987. He was born an American, son of a Navy man... every prize of the Great Republic his to win. What then caused his troubled journey? Did it start with his diminutive stature, just 5 feet 2 inches, 105 pounds? Was it his adamant disavowal of God and religion? Was it a father's disdain of his effeminate son's homosexual preferences, the source of argument, fights, an unloving home for a son who deserved more than disdain, threats, physical violence instead of understanding and a loving home? If there was treason in this boy then, the boy who loved the saxophone, science, and computer games and was firm in his often controversial opinions but could make his case without rancor and with all civility; if there was treason here, it was seen by none of the Sooners who were his classmates, friends, and neighbors, the people who see nothing at the time but talk of strange eyes and odd habits years later. Besides, no one wants to think that the quiet, unobtrusive loner at the back of the classroom is a traitor and menace to the Great Republic. Yet America took a body blow from this forgettable, average, hardly observed young man, voluminous in his discoveries, unrelenting in his high crimes and misdemeanors. Arrested in Iraq, May, 2010. In October, 2009 Manning was assigned to a unit of the 10th Mountain Division, based near Baghdad. There he had regular access to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). It was used by the United States government to transmit classified information. He was arrested for hubris, namely by bragging to computer hacker Adrian Lamo about what he was doing. Lamo reported to the FBI that Manning had told him during online chats what he had done, what he was doing, and who got the data he downloaded to his personal computer. Amongst these data there were 250,000 diplomatic cables of first-rate significance, footage of a July 2007 Baghdad airstrike and footage of a May 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan. The FBI acted promptly and so Bradley Manning's need to be perceived as the big guy, the important guy, the coolest of spooks, brought him down, his pride his undoing, in the proper manner of every Greek play... for if one thing is clear in this sordid matter, it is this: that Bradley Manning, product of divorced parents, one-time resident of his pick-up truck, the victim of sexual obloquy, an employee who found the computer job he loved, only to be let go after four months... if one thing is clear, it's that Manning is just like all of us... a man buffeted by hard times and out-of-control circumstances... a man without self-respect who needed to brag and was brought down by his own foolishness and indiscretion; a man who in this gnawing vortex lost his way... a victim, to be sure, but a victim with the means to hurt us all. And so we say, "There but for the grace of God..." But PFC Manning, despite every painful incident of his short life, despite his undeniable pains, despite every bad thing that happened to him was still a Child of God, still had the benefit of God's boundless grace. He just didn't get that point, and even now as he faces the majestic wrath and stern protocols of military justice he probably still doesn't grasp this essential matter... And yet, even in extremis the perpetrator of this great evil, even now God's grace abides for Bradley Manning, arch traitor, all unknowing about God, His Ways, and the Great Republic, God's great enterprise. Amazing Grace. Your court-martial is near at hand. Tell all, Bradley Manning, reserve nothing and throw yourself upon the merciful people of this forgiving nation... the people who are horrified by what you have done and all the terrible things which could yet come from your terrible indiscretions... people who still have mercy for you and concern, although you gave none of these to us. Because of that mercy you will not receive a bullet in the heart, like Eddie Slovik, though life incarceration is possible. But even there you will still have life, for the prosecutor will not ask for your extinction. And, thus, where there is life, there abides hope and God's eternal grace, even for a wretch like you... Author's program note. Go now to any search engine; find your favorite rendition of "Amazing Grace." We all know the tune; this time listen to the words... and ponder them. ** We invite you to submit your comments to this article. |
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