"The
decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of the concern for my country and
the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been
at war.
I initially
agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend our country. It
was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis
that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this
time that I realized that in our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the
enemy, we had forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue
life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were
the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed
innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we
elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information
in order to avoid any public accountability.
In our zeal
to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held
individuals at Guantánamo for years without due process. We inexplicably
turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we
stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.
As the late
Howard Zinn once said, there is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of
killing innocent people.
I understand
that my actions violated the law. I regret that my actions hurt anyone or harmed
the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to
help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out
of a love for my country and my sense of duty to others.”
From Chelsea
Manning's statement, 22 August 2013, the day she was sentenced
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