Private Bradley E. Manning
U.S. State Department press spokesman P.J. Crowley has “suddenly resigned” — i.e., been fired — for describing the treatment of Bradley Manning as “ridiculous and stupid and counterproductive.” Manning is the soldier accused of passing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. Arrested 10 months ago, Manning has been subjected to punishment — solitary confinement and humiliation (compulsory nudity) — unusual for an individual not yet convicted of any crime. Manning’s treatment has become a cause among civil libertarians. The liberal blogger Glenn Greenwald, in particular, has been relentless in his coverage of Manning’s imprisonment, exposing the latter’s ill-treatment and excoriating the Obama administration for defending it. One may not agree with Greenwald’s wholesale condemnation of the administration’s civil liberties record. But he is surely right to point out that its policies bear little resemblance to the president’s campaign rhetoric.
In this, as in so much else associated with foreign policy and national security, there is a striking continuity between the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Calls for “audacity” may have served candidate Obama well on the campaign trail, but he clearly has little taste for it in practice. This, I should stress, is not an altogether bad thing. There is a great deal to be said for presidential caution, particularly in matters of war and peace. We need only think of the recklessness of President Bush’s drive for war with Iraq in 2002-2003 to appreciate the virtue of prudence.
Obama’s supporters and opponents alike continue to exaggerate his divergence from traditional U.S. approaches to national security. Whether increasing the use of drone attacks in Pakistan or asserting the right to detain prisoners indefinitely without charge, President Obama is conforming closely to the script written by his predecessor. Crowley’s exit is just the latest evidence.
Joe Barnes is the Baker Institute’s Bonner Means Baker Fellow. From 1979 to 1993, he was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.