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By Saagar Enjeti
In a recent blog post that has since gone viral, one former soldier sheds light on Chelsea Manning’s character in the lead-up to his unprecedented leak of vital national security information.
The soldier’s account differs strongly from Manning’s insinuations about her time in the U.S. Army. A 2013 Rolling Stone profile says of her experience:
Boot camp had been a misery. Bullied relentlessly, he suffered anxiety attacks, got into fights, even peed on himself (more than once).
The soldier posted his account on his personal blog in which he heavily disputed this idea saying instead:
Chelsea Manning was not picked on or harassed because of her gender or identity; she was not bullied because she was small or appeared easily overpowered or dominated. No, Chelsea Manning was ostracized. Because some unknown in her character prevented her from ever truly entering into that covenant of self-sacrifice upon which collective group defense depends, she could not ever satisfactorily contribute to the welfare of the group. In a social schema where the defense of the group becomes the perpetual rationale for why the group should even continue existing, Chelsea Manning either could not or would not sacrifice enough of herself to inspire loyalty among comrades.
Manning called out the uniform of the day, waited until her squad was dressed and had moved out to the morning formation, when she then put on the real, correct uniform of the day and ran to catch up. The commotion at the formation was her saying that she heard at the last minute what the real uniform was and it wasn’t her fault they were wrong; the rest of the team apparently was having none of it. In the Army, if everyone is wrong together, then they’re still right; uniformity is one of the highest virtues in our military. If one person is technically “right” but the rest of the team is uniformly wrong, then the technically “right” person is still wrong; everyone is still punished equally. By week two everybody knew that, lived it and lived with it. Everyone, except Manning.
Defenders of Manning often say he was suffering from gender dysmorphia throughout the lead up to his leaking of classified information, saying he was mentally unwell and should be forgiven. Former President Barack Obama seemed to agree with this line of thinking, echoing much of the same after he commuted Manning’s sentence allowing his release in May, 2017. This will put Manning out of prison 28 years ahead of scheduled.
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