Andrew J. Bacevich - Are Manning and Snowden patriots? That depends on what we do next.”

Andrew J. Bacevich lays out important insight and question in “Are Manning and Snowden patriots? That depends on what we do next.”

“ . . . By taking technology that the state employs to manufacture secrets and using it to make state secrecy Iran’s nuclear program. Forget the rise of China. Manning and Snowden confront Washington with something far more worrisome. They threaten the power the state had carefully accrued amid recurring wars and the incessant preparation for war. In effect, they place in jeopardy the state’s very authority — while inviting the American people to consider the possibility that less militaristic and more democratic approaches to national security might exist.

impossible, they put the machine itself at risk. Forget al-Qaeda. Forget

In the eyes of the state, Manning and Snowden — and others who may carry on their work — can never be other than traitors. Whether the country eventually views them as patriots depends on what Americans do with the opportunity these two men have handed us.”