Paddock writes: "The police in Myanmar opened fire on protesters in the city of Mandalay on Saturday, killing two people and wounding dozens, according to witnesses."
Protesters carrying an injured man in Mandalay, Myanmar. (photo: AP)
Myanmar Police Open Fire on Protesters, Killing 2
20 February 21
At least 40 people protesting the military�s ouster of civilian leaders were wounded in the city of Mandalay, volunteer medics said.
he police in Myanmar opened fire on protesters in the city of Mandalay on Saturday, killing two people and wounding dozens, according to witnesses.
The shootings occurred as the authorities were trying to force workers back to their jobs at a local shipyard. They were among hundreds of thousands of workers across Myanmar who have walked off their jobs to protest the military�s Feb. 1 coup and its ouster of elected civilian leaders.
More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the shipyard to block the police, leading to a tense standoff that lasted much of Saturday afternoon. The authorities used water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas, slingshots and ultimately live ammunition to break up the crowd, witnesses said.
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If he felt there was information that should be public, he should have left the Army and gone about his "expose" in the right manner instead of burning his fellow soldiers...whic h he did.
Puh-leez. Because the warrantless-wir etapping, information-shr edding, drone-assassina ting "government" of Obama would have responded well to his civilian requests, right? WHAT country did you think you still live in -- America, circa 1978?
Manning "burned" the fellow soldiers who perpetrate horrors in our name, for fun or lust -- "burned" the lying warlords who put our troops where they should not be -- "burned" the lying politicians who cravenly gave the cover... WHOM did he "burn" or "kill" as a result of these leaks? NO ONE -- let's be clear -- yet Bush-Cheney can "out" Valerie Plame (a REAL treasonous crime) -- people really DID die (the brave people who helped her in foreign countries) -- BUT WHERE IS THEIR TRIAL AND SURE SENTENCING?
Come on. Don't try and pretend it is other than what it is -- the most valiant and daring sacrifice for truth our country has seen.
TALK ABOUT THE CRIMES HE REVEALED, PLEASE -- or, don't they matter? What flexible morality you have...
Would you like to discuss that?
.....wait -- soldiers are to be held to higher standards than civilians? Then what Manning disclosed -- thousands of American soldiers committing atrocious humanitarian crimes -- should ALL then be tracked down, court-martialed , held in boxes and hung (like the prescription for Manning) -- because THEY are ALSO held to higher standards, right? Right?
Like Nuremberg, a standard to which none of his fellows or commanders rose.
I hope Bradley Manning is acquitted and can be released to carry on with his life.
This double-standard turns one's stomach...
FREE BRADLEY MANNING -- PROSECUTE THE CRIMINALS HE UNCOVERED.
Think of so many from Jesus, Spartacus, William Wallace, victims of the inquisition and the Tudors, of Danton and Robespierre, Crazy Horse, Roland Freisler's hapless condemned, the Japanese WW11 prisoners, Leonard Peltier, Mumiya Abu Jamal, Troy Anthony Davis -the list is endless.
Anybody who think manning is a traitor is a fink and total cowardly conformist.
Exactly WHAT information put America at jeopardy? Please tell us specifically how we were hurt. I submit that you don't have a clue. Our government classified this info to HIDE war crimes, among other things; it may have been embarrising for us and made us look bad, which we were; killing unarmed Iraqis and capturing it on video IS embarrising. These leaks helped start the Arab Spring. Bradley Manning is a HERO and I am PROUD of him and his actions. He showed TRUE COURRAGE by doing what he did.
A traitor to what?
The world's most lumbering, polluting, destructive and resource-soakin g, threatening bully of a military-indust rial corporate state which seeks to devour all in it's path and relies on uber-conformist s like you to go along with it and even sing it's praises.
I'd call that traitorous to the world in general and blinkered in the extreme.
The US doesn't exist in a bubble y'know, in spite of it's claim to exceptionalism, and is far from being a "civilized" nation, which is reflected in this kind of case which is almost medievalist in it's intent, like they used to leave hanged thieves corpses rotting at cross roads and hang the chopped torsos and legs of the quartered executed hanging in different towns, their heads on spike mounted on London bridge. It's also reflected in the the way it treats all but the wealthiest of it's own citizens, their basic well-being sacrificed for the military death machine.
The message, "Conform and stay silent or we'll get you one way or another"!
This paragraph can be the entering wedge into a truly interesting conversation about moral neutrality. See, e.g., http://righteousmind.com.
According to Jonathan Haidt's thesis, loyalty is more likely to be treated by liberals than by conservatives as a "morally neutral" virtue. The same goes for three other "moral foundations" identified by Haidt as universal in human societies: sanctity, liberty and respect for authority. Two more, care for others and fairness, are also important to conservatives, but these two are overwhelmingly important to liberals, who tend to take the other four into account only to the extent that their implications for the debate do not diminish the importance of care and fairness. (Haidt says libertarians, meanwhile, are unimpressed by any of the moral foundations other than liberty.)
Haidt's short answer to the quoted paragraph would probably be: To a conservative, Bradley Manning's disloyalty to the U.S. could easily be a hanging offense; to a liberal, it would pale in comparison to the need for care and protection for the victims of U.S. behavior; for a libertarian, it would be an issue not of morality but of individual policy.
[more to follow]
Check out his book. It'll give you new insight into why there are so many intelligent, thoughtful, morally-engaged and sincere writers on the blogs whose opinions seem to us intelligent, thoughtful, morally-engaged and sincere onlookers like pure lunacy.
According to Jonathan Haidt's thesis, loyalty is more likely to be treated by liberals than by conservatives as a "morally neutral" virtue. The same goes for three other "moral foundations" identified by Haidt as universal in human societies: sanctity, liberty and respect for authority. Two more, care for others and fairness, are also important to conservatives, but these two are overwhelmingly important to liberals, who tend to take the other four into account only to the extent that their implications for the debate do not diminish the importance of care and fairness. (Haidt says libertarians, meanwhile, are unimpressed by any of the moral foundations other than liberty.)
Haidt's short answer to the quoted paragraph would probably be: To a conservative, Bradley Manning's disloyalty to the U.S. could easily be a hanging offense; to a liberal, it would pale in comparison to the need for care and protection for the victims of U.S. behavior; for a libertarian, it would be an issue not of morality but of individual policy.
Check out his book. It'll give you new insight into why there are so many intelligent, thoughtful, morally-engaged and sincere writers on the blogs whose opinions seem to us intelligent, thoughtful, morally-engaged and sincere onlookers like pure lunacy.
Bradley fulfilled his oath with courage and honor. Bales was a good soldier.
There is a lack of understanding by the general public that an American soldier is obligated, by American negotiated treaties from WWI and WWII, to report war crimes and atrocities. The Holocaust was allowed to happen and continue because "no one" blew the whistle.
Time to free Bradley Manning and award him the Medal of Freedom!