In the movie "Annie Hall", actor Woody Allen points to the obvious... "Harvard makes mistakes too, you know. [pause for comic effect] Kissinger taught there."
Wow! The very name "Harvard" conjures up all sorts of superlatives. But now, reality strikes. They reveal themselves to be morally bankrupt, at the very best. Our deepest moral values and commitments are a major part of who we are, and Harvard is now exposed as devoid of moral values, commitments or any other obligations with ethical implications.
Harvard University has rescinded a fellowship invitation to Chelsea Manning, an Army whistleblower who exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and spent more than seven years in prison for releasing documentation of American war crimes to the press.
Chelsea didn't commit any war crimes, she exposed war crimes. In the hallowed halls of Harvard, this is unforgivable.
Absolutely amazing !!! This, of course, is in complete contrast to the way Harvard regards Henry Kissinger, one of history's greatest war criminals.
While Manning's leaks didn't result in the death of any Americans, Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley offers "A Collegial Reminder to Harvard That Henry Kissinger Leaked Secrets That May Have Gotten 21,000 Americans Killed."
During his brief tenure at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy, Kissinger got a lot done. In his first two years in office, he helped Richard Nixon sabotage Vietnamese peace talks for his own political gain, expanded that war into Laos and Cambodia (the destabilizing effects of which would pave the way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the death of up to two million people), and advocated the bombing of, in his own words, “anything that moves.”
In 1971, Kissinger backed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite evidence of massacre and rape. In ‘73, he orchestrated a military coup against the democratically elected Allende regime of Chile, installing in its stead the violently oppressive Pinochet dictatorship. And in ‘75, the then-Secretary of State lent his tacit support to President Suharto of Indonesia―himself a despot already responsible for the mass killings of hundreds of thousands―in the deadly conquest of East Timor. Kissinger himself, in proposing an intervention in Cyprus, summed up his philosophy best: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Appalling though this all may be, Kissinger’s most enduring legacy is subtler in its malignance. The foreign policy of Henry Kissinger is defined, above all, by an utter contempt for human life and absolute pursuit of “American interests.” For every one of Kissinger’s crimes that goes unpunished and for every bit of praise he receives, the belief that the United States can do whatever it wants with the rest of the world is further concretized. Behind every thoughtless, disastrous intervention since then―behind the mujahideen and the Contras, behind the Iraq war and the El Mozote Massacre―is the work of Henry Kissinger.
In 1971, Kissinger backed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite evidence of massacre and rape. In ‘73, he orchestrated a military coup against the democratically elected Allende regime of Chile, installing in its stead the violently oppressive Pinochet dictatorship. And in ‘75, the then-Secretary of State lent his tacit support to President Suharto of Indonesia―himself a despot already responsible for the mass killings of hundreds of thousands―in the deadly conquest of East Timor. Kissinger himself, in proposing an intervention in Cyprus, summed up his philosophy best: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Appalling though this all may be, Kissinger’s most enduring legacy is subtler in its malignance. The foreign policy of Henry Kissinger is defined, above all, by an utter contempt for human life and absolute pursuit of “American interests.” For every one of Kissinger’s crimes that goes unpunished and for every bit of praise he receives, the belief that the United States can do whatever it wants with the rest of the world is further concretized. Behind every thoughtless, disastrous intervention since then―behind the mujahideen and the Contras, behind the Iraq war and the El Mozote Massacre―is the work of Henry Kissinger.
Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf is a coward issuing a convoluted and contradictory statement as an explanation, "we should weigh, for each potential visitor, what members of the Kennedy School community could learn from that person’s visit against the extent to which that person’s conduct fulfills the values of public service to which we aspire. [in truth, this explains why Chelsea should be invited not why the invitation is withdrawn] This balance is not always easy to determine, and reasonable people can disagree about where to strike the balance for specific people. Any determination should start with the presumption that more speech is better than less." [again, this explains why we want to hear Chelsea not why we are attempting to silence her]
Discussion of a person's conduct fulfilling the values of public service to which we aspire is a smoke screen to hide our true attitude. We don't want ethical people doing ethical things as public service. Elmendorf points out, "But I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific" and if he were speaking honestly, which he is not, he would have continued with 'and we damn sure don't want to honor someone like Chelsea who would do the ethical thing even in the face of prison time... that is not the lesson we want to teach to those aspiring to public service."
It is difficult to focus on the controversy involved because there are so many intertwined issues. That the CIA instigated against Chelsea causes one to look at the CIA - a suspect of murder in the John Kennedy assassination among many other assassinations.
Or, we could be focused on Pompeo's CIA statement in a letter to Harvard officials. "Wikileaks is an enemy of the United States." What exactly does that statement mean? Is that like saying that 'Truth' is an enemy of the United States? Isn't that why Chelsea went to prison, for telling the truth... Or did she lie?
Or, one could look at the legal aspects of Chelsea's 35 year prison sentence - the long illegal imprisonment even before having a trial. The 'trial' completely ignored 'due process' and the 'guilty verdict' was preordained. If 'justice is blind' it is because we poked out both of her eyes.
Or, we could be focused on Pompeo's CIA statement in a letter to Harvard officials. "Wikileaks is an enemy of the United States." What exactly does that statement mean? Is that like saying that 'Truth' is an enemy of the United States? Isn't that why Chelsea went to prison, for telling the truth... Or did she lie?
Or, one could look at the legal aspects of Chelsea's 35 year prison sentence - the long illegal imprisonment even before having a trial. The 'trial' completely ignored 'due process' and the 'guilty verdict' was preordained. If 'justice is blind' it is because we poked out both of her eyes.
The murder of innocent civilians by US armed forces was shown to us by Chelsea Manning -- Frame of Collateral Murder, the video of the U.S. ambush on unarmed civilians in Baghdad in July 2007. The voice from the helicopter is saying, "Light 'em all up. C'mon, fire!" Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for letting us know the truth about our actions in Iraq... Photo from Collateral Murder.
The photo above... "airstrikes in Baghdad conducted by a team of two U.S. Army Apache helicopters. Crew members reported that they had seen a group of nine to 11 men, two of whom were war correspondents for Reuters -- Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. They claimed the men were armed when in fact nobody was. A journalist's camera does not look like a rifle.
In three incidents concentrated within 20 minutes, helicopter snipers (firing 30mm cannons, bullets nearly two inches wide) shot the journalists, killed at least 12 civilians, fired on a man crawling for cover and fired on a van, killing two children, and fired a rocket at a building where people had run for cover. They acted with approval of their higher-ups. None of the people killed were militants.
This incident was revealed in the video Collateral Murder, given to WikiLeaks by Pvt. Bradley Manning"
In three incidents concentrated within 20 minutes, helicopter snipers (firing 30mm cannons, bullets nearly two inches wide) shot the journalists, killed at least 12 civilians, fired on a man crawling for cover and fired on a van, killing two children, and fired a rocket at a building where people had run for cover. They acted with approval of their higher-ups. None of the people killed were militants.
This incident was revealed in the video Collateral Murder, given to WikiLeaks by Pvt. Bradley Manning"
“This is what a military/police/intel state looks like... the CIA determines what is and is not taught at Harvard,” Chelsea Manning Tweeted shortly after Harvard revoked her offer under CIA pressure. “Honored to be 1st disinvited trans woman visiting Harvard fellow. They chill marginalized voices under CIA pressure.”
Here in the United States, we no longer feel the need to pretend about certain things like justice, morals or ethics. The hallowed halls of higher education are no different... 'The proof is in the pudding', and that's the truth !!!
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