P.J. Crowley: I stand by what I said about Bradley Manning

Posted By Joshua Keating Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - 11:08 AM Share

Judging by his appearance on CNN last night, parsing the president's speech, recently fired State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley is making a transition to media pundit in record time. In an op-ed for the Guardian today, he addresses the reason he was fired, his desription of the treatment of accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning as "stupid" and "counterproductive" during a speech at MIT.

Crowley starts by arguing that Manning is" rightly facing prosecution" and "if convicted, should spend a long, long time in prison." But, perhaps since he's already been fired for them, doesn't walk back his previous comments at all:

Private Manning's family, joined by a number of human rights organisations, has questioned the extremely restrictive conditions he has experienced at the brig at Marine Corps base Quantico, Virginia. I focused on the fact that he was forced to sleep naked, which led to a circumstance where he stood naked for morning call.

Based on 30 years of government experience, if you have to explain why a guy is standing naked in the middle of a jail cell, you have a policy in need of urgent review. The Pentagon was quick to point out that no women were present when he did so, which is completely beside the point.

The issue is a loss of dignity, not modesty.

Our strategic narrative connects our policies to our interests, values and aspirations. While what we do, day in and day out, is broadly consistent with the universal principles we espouse, individual actions can become disconnected. Every once in a while, even a top-notch symphony strikes a discordant note. So it is in this instance.

To put it another way, if your own previously reliable spokesman is calling a government policy "stupid" in public, you probably have a policy in need of urgent review.

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VONRYANSEXPRESS

9:17 AM ET

March 31, 2011

The man in the cold.

Mr. Manning is going to spend a life that is regulated and determined by others. This is the consequence of his acts.

Whether it is true that he's already been singled out for 'preferential' treatment as a high profile incarceree pending his trial, is yet to be determined.

Controlling the sleep behavior of prisoners is within standard corrections authority. It may be that Mr. Manning has exaggerated his plight of why he's compelled to be visible during his sleep when grousing with his counsel.

When Mr. Manning gets to Leavenworth Penitentiary, he's going to feel a cold wind that seems to emanate from the dead. He'll be properly garbed then for that lifetime of bitter climate and forgotten purpose. If he remains a danger to the country or himself, he'll end at SuperMax and his days at Quantico will be the best of a bad lot.

Mr. Crowley has his view. When he spoke, did he have knowledge of the needs at Quantico and the conditions of Mr. Manning's current mental state?

Manning has taken on the profile of a cause célèbre with some of the 'me too's' of the world's left. They might have picked a better candidate for their concerns. Mr. Manning is a self indulgent individual that stimulates only contempt with millions that know that a duty sworn is the opposite of betrayal.

All these Bradley Manning angst’s by men such as Mr. Crowley are just saccharine and pious declarations that curry favor with the fact that Manning is a known gay and as such merits a special concern because he's 'special.'

"How dare you" comes to mind easily when examining the indignation that comes from the 'we support Bradley' crowd. More interest group politics run amuck apparently.
It's not civil libertarians for Bradley, it's Ru-Paul's Bad Place for Bradley.

Perhaps, Oscar Wilde's famed verse is doubly stiched to Mr. Manning's prison doublet and suitable for Manning hand wringers as well:

"The vilest deeds like prison weeds
Bloom well in prison air:
It is only what is good in man
that wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate
and the Warder is despair."

Inherit that cold wind now Mr. Manning.

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