Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the rally at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia on March 20, 2011 in support of alleged Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning.
Markin comment:
I don’t have much occasion, or at least have not had much occasion recently, to be in Northern Virginia and certainly not in Triangle, Virginia the town attached to the Quantico Marine Base just off the Jefferson Davis Highway (that road designation named for the President of the defeated, or at least I assumed it was defeated, Southern Confederacy alone should tell everyone, every Northern everyone, that we are dealing with a different animal here). Nor would I, in the normal course of events, have occasion to be seeking parking space in the mammoth parking lot in front of the eerily-shaped Marine Corps Museum across from the base, although my late father proudly served in the Marines in World War II and saw battle in the Pacific. But as I have explained elsewhere (see below, Why I Will Be Standing In Solidarity With Private Bradley Manning At Quantico, Virginia On Sunday March 20th At 2:00 PM- A Personal Note From An Ex-Soldier Political Prisoner) today though, this day, this spring-like March day I am here on class-war prisoner business in support of accused whistleblower Private Bradley Manning who is being held in close pre-trial confinement here.
And so Northern Virginia Confederacy legacy or not, spring-like weather or not, I am here with other like-minded spirits to show our support in this desperate struggle to gain Private Manning’s freedom. And the usual cast of such characters are present: old-time radicals who have not lost that flickering flame that drove them to the left in their youths; Veterans for Peace, male and female, ex-soldiers of half the modern wars fought by the American imperial state, who learned the hard way, the very hard way, but learned, the madnesses of war and are out to spread the news; CodePink women who have become a righteous mainstay of the anti-war movement and put a little sparkle in as well; assorted Quakers and other religious people who know right from wrong in that milieu and are willing to do something about it; little old ladies in tennis sneakers (New Balance of course), little old men in tennis sneakers (ditto on the sneaker brand) and others, younger others, out to protest the outrageous treatment of alleged whistleblower Private Bradley Manning. Righteous people all, although maybe just a little too politically naïve about the nature of the American state. But I will let that pass for now as we are in a principled united front here on the issue that counted- freedom for Private Manning.
What was not present and, in the end to our regret, was anything like the Bolshevik Party of Russia in 1917. Or some great cloud of pre-World War I Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, Wobblies) descending on a Western town for a raucous Free Speech campaign where all hell was expected to break loose by both sides. Or even, closer in time, some Hippie-Yippie-Communist conflagration to shut down the streets of Chicago in the 1969 Days of Rage or the American government in the streets of Washington, D.C. in 1971. But someone forgot to tell the Virginia state/ Marine military intelligence officers who organized the security forces against the grannies and grandpas massed outside the Quantico base that this was not the intention, never was the intention, and could not possibly be the intention of those who sought Private Bradley Manning’s release this day. In the headline I called it the Quantico war-zone and that is what the governmental preparations were like- I swear I have not seen so many fully-armed, SWAT teams, so many horse-riding Cossacks, so many just plain police officers massed for a small demonstration in a while. Maybe I would have to go back to those shutting down the American government 1971 days but at least there we knew what we were up against, and were ready to take our chances. Needless to say with so much police presence the air was tense with expectation. And also with the inevitable police overreaction to every small gesture of resistance, no matter how non-violently posed. Like the fate of the American government was at stake in Triangle, Virginia that day. Everybody from Obama on down in that crowd should have egg on their faces from this one. But in the end the important thing was that we were there to support Private Bradley Manning, a righteous winter soldier. And we did so.
Note: I did not want to overload what I wanted to write above about the March 20th Quantico war-zone with a lot of speculation about what that massive police presence meant so I will put it in this note. Obviously some 30 billion dollars spent on intelligence-gathering, if that is the right word, does not buy you what it use to. A simple informer’s report from the March 19th Veteran’s for Peace-led march in front of the White House would have told the authorities that a mass rising at Triangle was not in the offing. And while we are on the subject it is clear that the Quantico security satraps did not bother to check with their Washington brethren about how to handle finicky grandpas and fidgety grandmas who WANT to be arrested as acts of civil disobedience. There were probably about a hundred or so police (maybe less) acting as security in front of the White House, the WHITE HOUSE for christsakes, who had the situation in well in tow and without serious incident. Additionally, and I take no credit for this one, apparently those in charge of Quantico security are-metaphorically-challenged and seemingly took literally the notion that we were there to free Bradley Manning. Like this was some Weather Underground freeing of guru Timothy Leary in the old days kind of action. In any case stop reading that old stuff and update your files.
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Why I Will Be Standing In Solidarity With Private Bradley Manning At Quantico, Virginia On Sunday March 20th At 2:00 PM- A Personal Note From An Ex-Soldier Political Prisoner
Markin comment:
Of course I will be standing at the front gate to the Quantico Marine Base on March 20th because I stand in solidarity with the actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little light, some of the nefarious doings of this government, Bush-like or Obamian. If he did such acts. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that Private Manning (or someone) exposed what we all knew, or should have knew- the Iraq war and the Afghan war justification rested on a house of card. American imperialism’s house of cards, but cards nevertheless.
Of course I will be standing at the front gate to the Quantico Marine Base on March 20th because I am outraged by the treatment of Private Manning meted to a presumably innocent man by a government who alleges itself to be some “beacon” of the civilized world. The military has gotten more devious although not smarted since I was soldier in their crosshairs over forty years ago. Allegedly Private Manning might become so distraught over his alleged actions that he requires extraordinary protections. He is assumed, in the Catch-22 logic of the military, to be something of a suicide risk on the basis of bringing some fresh air to the nefarious doings of the international imperialist order. Be serious. I, however, noticed no ‘spike” in suicide rates among the world’s diplomatic community once they were exposed, a place where such activities might have been expected once it was observed in public that most of these persons could barely tie their own shoes.
Now the two reasons above are more than sufficient reasons for my standing at the front gate to the Quantico Marine Base on March 20th although they, in themselves, are only the appropriate reasons that any progressive thinking person would need to show up and shout to the high heavens for Private Manning’s freedom. I have an addition reason though, a very pressing personal reason. As mentioned above I too was in the military’s crosshairs as a soldier during the height of the Vietnam War. I will not go into the details of that episode, this after all is about soldier Manning, other than that I spent my own time in an Army stockade for, let’s put it this way, working on the principle of “what if they gave a war and nobody came.” Forty years later I am still working off that principle, and gladly. But here is the real point. During that time I had outside support, outside civilian support, that rallied on several occasions outside the military base where I was confined. Believe me that knowledge helped me through the tough days inside. So on March 20th I am just, as I have been able to on too few other occasions over years, paying my dues for that long ago support. You, brother, are true winter soldier.
Private Manning I hope that you will hear us, or hear about our rally in your defense. Better yet, everybody who read this join us and make sure that he can hear us loud and clear. And let us shout to those high heavens mentioned above-Free Private Bradley Manning Now!
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