Just a reminder: Desmond Tutu salutes Manning (and thank Hank, I am on the right side of history.)

[sabrina 1]

31. I didn't find them exciting, I found most of what I read to be extremely disturbing. I generally

don't find reading about torture and murder of real human beings to be 'exciting'. I find it horrific and read it only because these crimes are committed in our name and we have a duty, a sad one, to be informed, unlike previous nations who turned a blind eye and later pretended not to know, and then to do everything possible to try to stop the crimes and to get those responsible prosecuted, no matter how long it takes.

And I never thought for a moment that I was reading something I 'was not meant to read'.

I have every right to know what my government is up to, especially when they are committing war crimes. And when they are cozying up to Dictators and Human Rights violators while they support them with money and arms as they terrorize their own people. Yes, we learned a lot from those leaks.

Manning's hopes for justice when he released them shows he still had faith in this country to do what was right. Like many of us during the Bush years, which is when he learned all of this, he thought that the crimes were not known to those in power, and when they found out people would be held accountable. I sympathize with him, we all thought that at one time. Not anymore. Sadly he has learned a sad lesson. However, time has a way of correcting these injustices. See South America eg, it took fifty years to prosecute their war criminals, but people will never forget injustices. So Manning may live to see justice done some day, I hope so.

I also found out that our government, the one we worked so hard to elect, directly interfered to stop the prosecution in Spain, which has jurisdiction over those crimes, from prosecuting Bush Torturers. That was a shock, even though we had wondered why those prosecutions were once again delayed.

Yes we learned a lot about our government and its foreign policies, and Bush's war crimes.

I have no idea why you would think that anyone would find all of this tragic history 'exciting' or that any American should feel they have no right to know what their government is doing in their name.

Manning is a hero for trying to do something to make this a better country.

And his treatment is another lesson learned. While War and Wall St Criminals are protected, we now know we live in a country where it is the messengers who are persecuted. I would not have believed that just a few years ago.