“[I]f you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time, and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do? ” -Bradley Manning
Daniel Ellsberg is a celebrated hero in most liberal circles. He is remembered and honored as a brave soul who revealed the lies of a Republican administration about atrocities committed during the Viet Nam War. It can be argued that Bradley Manning performed a similar service to his nation, but he committed his acts under a Democratic administration, so the same voices calling for an investigation of torture and civilian deaths during the Bush years, have become apologists for those same crimes under Obama. If being ethical means using the same scale for one’s friends and enemies, it is hard to find many these days who qualify.
The following article asks the uncomfortable question: are liberals still concerned about civil liberties when a Democrat is in office?