Reply #94: Alright, I just want to be clear here

[NuclearDem]

I'm not questioning or degrading MrScorpio's honorable service. Anyone who is should be ashamed of themselves.

But I also took that Oath. And I also was given a Top Secret-SCI clearance. And I know that while I swore to obey the orders of the President and of the officers appointed over me, those orders don't always fall in line with the other part I swore: to defend the Constitution of the United States.

We're taught as servicemen to disobey illegal orders and to address it through our chain of command. But when nobody in the chain of command does anything about it(as was done with the torture chambers in Iraq that we allowed to go on under Iraqi charge and were in fact ordered to turn a blind eye to), our duty falls to the Constitution and the promise it gave to the world. The promise that we would be different, that we would be the champion of human rights and liberty around the world. Not just the new oppressors.

Admittedly, Manning had so many other options he could have made use of before simply releasing that information to Wikileaks: addressing his Congressmen, petitioning all the way up the chain of command to the President, or reporting abuses to NGOs like Amnesty.

But when all else fails, when the chain of command fails to address war crimes happening within his own ranks, it becomes the serviceman's duty to uphold the Constitution above all else. I'm not saying that's why Manning did what he did; from what I can tell, he did what he did just to prove he could, which is completely dishonorable.

You can't simply hide behind "it was my job to protect classified information" when it comes to concealing torture chambers. "Just doing my job" wasn't a defense at Nuremberg, and it isn't one now. The Geneva Conventions say so. The US military says so (I know; I've sat through dozens of briefings on that very topic).

I enlisted because, above all, I believe in America and the Constitution. When the President or any member of the chain of command orders torture or to have torture concealed, they become one of the domestic enemies I swore to defend the Constitution against.

But again, MrScorpio, I respect and honor your service. Very few people have the ability to do what we do. :hi: