State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley has called the treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley E. Manning, an Army private whom military jailers forced to sleep naked for several days last week, "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
As I said on
Absolutely right. The only thing surprising about this is that it happened in such a high-profile case. You'd think some political pressure would have been brought to bear to ensure that nothing like this would happen since it would inevitably show up in the papers worldwide (which it is, even if it was a bit slow in starting).
Obama's official response is disappointing, but thoroughly predictable. There's no way in hell he's politically stupid enough to show even basic human sympathy for Bradley Manning the uber-leaker. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there's some backchannel chewing out going on about now. It is an international embarrassment and what's more it put Obama in the position of alienating either the portion of the general public, who tend not to give a damn what happens to people who cross the bright line between Good People and Bad People, and the significant part of his base that's very concerned about torture1 and human rights (as practiced and observed, or not, by the U.S. Government and not just third world countries and China)2. He can't be happy about that.
As Talleyrand said, “This is worse than a crime, it's a blunder.”
1Although I would not use the word torture to describe this. The incident in question is where the word "degrading treatment" seems right on the money.
2This includes me, though I don't think I'd describe myself as being part of Obama's base.
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