Today's best idea is spread by Norman Solomon: a Nobel Peace Prize for Bradley Manning

"Now, the Nobel Committee and its Peace Prize are in dire need of rehabilitation. In truth, the Nobel Peace Prize needs Bradley Manning much more than the other way around."

-- Norman Solomon, in "Memo from Oslo:
If Peace Is Prized, a Nobel for Bradley Manning"

by Ken

As Norman Solomon will explain in a moment, he's in Oslo today, and his mission was to "carry several thousand pages of a petition -- filled with the names of more than 100,000 signers, along with individual comments from tens of thousands of them -- to an appointment with the Research Director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee . . . urg[ing] that Bradley Manning be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

At the time Manning became a public figure with the revelation of his document dump, there was a deep split in the commentariat as to whether he should be regarded as a traitor or a hero. I'm going to suggest that at this remove in time the case for "traitor" is looking more and more pathetic, and the case for "hero" more and more deserved.

In particular, the insane effort by the U.S. government to crucify Manning for "aiding" Al Qaeda is so disgracefully misguided that everyone involved in it should be required to march in a Parade of Dunces down Pennsylvania Avenue wearing nothing but underpants and dunce caps, with perhaps the addition of "KICK ME I'M STUPID" signs. We can get around to hassling Bradley Manning for aiding Al Qaeda once we've executed or incarcerated George W. Bush and the hundreds of people in his administration and that of his successor who have done more than Al Qaeda could have dreamed to ensure its longevity with their prosecution of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and the War on Terror generally.

Whereas the case for "hero" is looking stronger day by day as -- just as with the revelations of Edward Snowden -- we keep learning things of immense national importance which our government has been hiding from us, both illegally and unconscionably. When does the investigation and prosecution of all that dastardly America-destroying behavior begin?

Here's Norman Solomon's report:

As I write these words early Monday, the sky is starting to lighten over Oslo. This afternoon I'll carry several thousand pages of a petition -- filled with the names of more than 100,000 signers, along with individual comments from tens of thousands of them -- to an appointment with the Research Director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The petition urges that Bradley Manning be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Like so many other people, the signers share the belief of Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire who wrote this summer: "I can think of no one more deserving."

Opening heart and mind to moral responsibility -- seeing an opportunity to provide the crucial fuel of information for democracy and compassion -- Bradley Manning lifted a shroud and illuminated terrible actions of the USA's warfare state. He chose courage on behalf of humanity. He refused to just follow orders.

"If there's one thing to learn from the last ten years, it's that government secrecy and lies come at a very high price in blood and money," Bradley Manning biographer Chase Madar wrote. "And though information is powerless on its own, it is still a necessary precondition for any democratic state to function."

Bradley Manning recognized that necessary precondition. He took profound action to nurture its possibilities on behalf of democracy and peace.

No doubt a Nobel Peace Prize for Bradley Manning is a very long longshot. After all, four years ago, the Nobel Committee gave that award to President Obama, while he was escalating the war in Afghanistan, and since then Obama's dedication to perpetual war has become ever more clear.

Now, the Nobel Committee and its Peace Prize are in dire need of rehabilitation. In truth, the Nobel Peace Prize needs Bradley Manning much more than the other way around.

No one can doubt the sincere dedication of Bradley Manning to human rights and peace. But on Henrik Ibsen Street in Oslo, the office of the Nobel Committee is under a war cloud of its own making.

The Obama administration is so invested in the delusions and dishonesties underlying the prosecution (persecution?) of Bradley Manning that even if this longest of shots, a Nobel Peace Prize for Bradley Manning, were to materialize, it seems unlikely to alter the government position. The same would be true if a Bradley Manning Nobel Peace Prize were followed by one for Edward Snowden. Until there's a price to pay for suppressing inconvenient information, how likely is it that our government -- or any other -- will do anything else?

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