"Gender Surrender: Bradley Manning Unmanned"

 Gender Surrender:  Bradley Manning Unmanned

      It was long thought back in the Middle Ages(the 20^th Century and before) that among the inherent weaknesses of women was the inability to keep a secret. It was a proud day for feminists everywhere, then, when Private First Class Bradley Manning turned out to be the source for “the biggest breach of classified documents in the nation’s history.” It was a male spilling the grand frijoles to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, not a woman. Take that, Male swine of the Chauvin breed: Sus Scrofa Chauvinistica.(Wikipedia Aug. 22, 2013)

      But not so fast. We should not count our fowl before they are unfeathered. For espionage, Manning got thirty-five years in Leavenworth and lost his rank of Private First Class(he is no longer First Class.) By now you’ve read how Bradley Manning handled this conviction: He had blown his first twenty-five years as a 'he', so -- upon entering his new career as jailbird -- he has decided to spend the rest of his life as a ‘she’    Reuters reports today that, immediately after the judge pronounced sentence on him, No-longer-First-Class-Private Manning began to assert that he is a woman named Chelsea. It turns out that Bradley Manning, convicted masculine spy, is in the process of un-Manning himself in pursuit of wo-Manning up -- as alter ego Chelsea Manning. (Reuters Aug 22, 2013: “Wikileaker Manning wants to live as ’Chelsea’”)

      How did this come about? Initially, “A psychiatrist, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, testified during Manning’s trial that the soldier suffered from gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive disorder”(nothing abnormal in the military about narcissism or that obsessive-compulsive thing.)   And Manning‘s lawyer, David Coombs, argued at trial that the Army was partly to blame for the release of the classified documents by virtue of ignoring the signals that Manning was troubled. Later, during the deliberation concerning his sentencing, it was revealed that the “soldier suffered from gender identity disorder”.(Reuters Aug 22, 2013: “Wikileaker Manning wants to live as ’Chelsea’”)

      It seems that Manning, allergic to the discipline, routine, and masculine environment of a six year hitch in the Army, solved his problem by signing up for thirty-five years of discipline, routine, and masculine environment in Leavenworth, an all male prison. In fact, Manning has asserted he does not want to attend a woman’s prison, but does want to begin receiving female hormone therapy so that, presumably, he/she can be the only hairless 5’2” inmate with breasts in the exercise yard(Did he/she not see The Shawshank Redemption?!) Since he/she also doesn’t want any surgery with his/her hormones, it looks like he/she will be lacking the proper Government Issue equipment should a fellow male inmate prove amorous himself or attractive to Manning(That’s courage under fire.)

      How will he/she survive? We’ll see, but Manning will be the envy of the cellblock, the only inmate with two new hormone-inspired balloons to play with alone in his/her cell. Also, Manning’s lawyer is hoping for a pardon from President Obama.(Reuters Aug 22, 2013: “Wikileaker Manning wants to live as ’Chelsea’”)

      What’s going on here?

      Manning’s obviously very troubled. I agree with his/her lawyer: How did the Army miss the signs? What politically correct manual leaves blank the page on hurting, confused, disconnected Privates(pardon the pun.)  Is the Army unwilling or unable to identify the Mannings before they hurt themselves and others? In order to get the attention he/she desired and should have received, he/she betrayed her/his country. Now the convicted spy has gotten lots of attention.

      In essence, the former soldier bought into the logical extension of our current gender politics: if you’re unhappy as a boy, become a girl. And vice versa. It’s salvation by gender surrender. The Bradley or Chelsea Mannings of the world truly need help. Often they are crying out for it. It is a tragedy that the chain of command is so 'whipped' that it betrays the nation by its errors of omission, its refusal to perform according to its responsibilities, hoping that they will be covered up by ignorance or time. The fruit of that abrogation of duty is the Bradley/Chelsea Mannings of the world, who will be heard, one way or the other.  I hope Manning finally gets the help he needs.

      As an absurd post script, I can’t seem to get out of my mind the image of the Chinese general who has to explain to his superiors in the People’s Liberation Army about all the money he spent hiring, training, and supporting hackers until they broke into the classified computers in the Pentagon.  All the charismatic Assange had to do was convince some low-level schnook, connected to those same classified files, that the guy was an unappreciated and neglected ugly duckman destined to be transformed into a lovely swanette, like Luis in Kiss of the Spider Woman.  Under Assange's influence, Manning came to believe that he, a male schlemiel, was in reality a woman schlimazel who deserved so much more than the worthless poker hand Fate had dealt him/her.

      It reminds me of the story of the antigravity pen during the cold war race for space. NASA, so the story goes, spent millions designing a ballpoint that would write on specially prepared whiteboards at zero G. What they came up with was effective. The Russians also considered the problem. They decided to use pencil and paper. It worked just as well.
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