JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY TONY BURMAN IN THE TORONTO STAR

“more hero than traitor”

Sorry, I have a problem with that wording.

In my view, the word “traitor” has no application to Edward Snowden whatever.

Of course, one expects it to be on the lips of the usual gang of blood-thirsty America-firsters – people like John McCain or Dick Cheney or Condoleezza Rice – but then almost everything those people say is unthinking lies.

The victorious Allies hung men, high-ranking men indeed, after WWII for “just following orders.”

It is no different in the intelligence field than in the military: when an order or an assignment violates the very basic precepts of a society, the traitors, if the word has any application at all, are the ones who blindly follow.

Edward Snowden rises above run-of-the-mill heroes, too: he has risked just about everything – home, career, and his life – to reveal secret government acts violating the ethical and legal precepts of free society and threatening the futures of everyone.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN RUSSIA TODAY

Private Manning deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and as few recipients have deserved it in recent years.

He represents a genuine hero for our time, having risked so very much to reveal truth, a most ugly set of truths too.

His words about being most affected by seeing helicopter pilots enjoying their devilish work of slaughtering what were obviously civilians reminded me painfully of the recordings of American pilots during the first Gulf War.

Poor Iraqi troops – just poor conscripts for the most part – were evacuating Kuwait City and trying to retreat.

A huge traffic jam allowed American pilots to swoop down, again and again, to strafe and bomb their vehicles.

Hundreds of the retreating troops were killed in the most horrible fashion in acts no different to shooting a fleeing man in the back.

We heard voices of American pilots yelling out things like, “Hey, this is jus’ like shootin’ fish in a barrel! Whoopee!”

It was a horrifying moment for any person of conscience.

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY MATTHEW NORMAN IN THE TELEGRAPH

But most heroes are glamorous only for now.

That has always been the case.

It is called celebrity, and it has the lasting qualities of the froth on a beer.

There are a few genuine heroes here and there, and most go uncelebrated.