You wouldn't know it from watching the news but something mildly interesting happened today: Army Intelligence Analyst Bradley Manning was found guilty of 19 counts of espionage and not guilty of aiding the enemy at his military trial at Fort Meade in Maryland. Manning sent a virtual treasure trove of classified material about American operations to Wikileaks who promptly did what their name suggests and leaked it all over the world media.
I'm glad he was found not guilty of aiding the enemy. I think that would have set a dangerous precedent where, conceivably, any whistleblower in any level of government could be considered a terrorist or a traitor. The counts of espionage I'm far more sanguine about: after all, this guy was an Army Intelligence analyst- he had (I'm betting) to go through a fairly length process to get a security clearance and was probably fully aware of the consequences of his actions if he chose to leak classified material. You could argue that he did the right thing by leaking the information- you could say the same thing about NSA Leaker Edward Snowden- but let's not pretend what these guys did wasn't illegal. They knew they were breaking the rules. They have to accept the consequences- it's unfortunate that Manning got caught, while Snowden did not (at least from Manning's point of view, I'd imagine) but leaking classified material is a no-no. Stand on principle all you like- leak all you like- but don't expect there not to be consequences for your actions. Please, don't be that naive.
The next interesting part of this case is going to be the sentencing. I'll admit, I haven't been reading up on this as much as I should have but Manning has been put through the wringer. It'd be interesting to see how much time served he's going to get credited to his sentence. (Maybe even sentenced to time served and be done with it- but I doubt he'll get that lucky.)
But all of this raises an interesting question: are we reaching the limits of American hegemony? It's hard for me to be sympathetic to people that complain about the US Government. American citizens are easy: 'Did you vote? No? Well then, shut the f--k up, you don't get to complain.' Denizens of the rest of the world are harder. It's easy, I suppose to demonize America and by extension Americans as the big, bad, imperialistic boogeyman holding the world in thrall- but that argument too, strikes me as simplistic and rather naive. These countries have armies. These countries have economic heft and influence. What the fuck are they doing with their time? When it's functioning, the EU economic block is a bigger economy than that of America's. If civilizing behavior is what the world expects of America, it's time for Europe to pull their heads out of their asses and get to work. They've got the economic heft to be a potential counterweight to America and China, if need be- but they won't. It's far easier to be outside the tent pissing in that inside the tent pissing out.
(Or: if your governments have collectively abrogated their defense resposibilities to another country and replaced principled foreign policy with waffling, hand-wringing and economic turpitude, you don't get to complain about the hegemony you're left with!)
That's not say that I don't value the European perspective. I think Europe handles things like terrorism far, far better than we do over here. It's hard to see something like The Patriot Act ever being passed in Europe- or the TSA with it's naked body scanners. It irritates me immensely that when it comes to foreign policy, Europe is either far too willing to follow America's lead or far too unwilling to back up rhetoric with force where it needs too. (And no, I don't count Libya. If Sarkozy hadn't been in a tight Presidential race, I doubt the French would have even bothered with it. And the fact they did take the lead speaks more to the incompetence of our current administration than newly muscular willingness on their part to step up.)
Of bigger concern should be the fact that the distance between government and the governed is growing, not shrinking. Conservatives might think that's bad news for Progressives but I don't see it that way- it's bad news all around. On average, America breaks around 50% turnout for elections. Of that 50%, 51% pick a winner. So, a fraction of the electorate picks a relatively small group of people to represent us and they govern not for everybody but for the people that elected them. And it's not sane, sensible, moderate people that we're getting- nooooooooo, we're getting the shrill, hysterical ends of the political spectrum and neither one of them is exactly pleasant. People don't care because who wants to jump into the mudpit that our political discourse has become?
There's a fantastic book I keep meaning to read called Bowling Alone which details the breakdown of the traditional community in America. Things like bowling leagues, churches, the PTA- things that brought people together (to maybe talk and decide that things really suck and hey maybe we should do something about things, what do you say?) have been breaking down- and I'm willing to bet if I read the book, I'll discover that the breakdown of our community parallels the breakdown in our civic and political health.
To me, the only solution I can think of is figuring out what new community bonds can bring us together in 21st Century. I doubt you'll see a wholesale revival of bowling leagues or PTAs or whatever- but there has to be a solution. There has to be an end to the growing gap between governed and government and ultimately, only we, the governed can insist on the transparency necessary to reign in the excesses of our government. Bradley Manning, to me, isn't a hero or a villain but rather symptomatic of the growing ill-health of American democracy and by extent (since nobody else seems willing to fight global fires so far) our hegemony as well.
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