Tarnished image

Julian Assange has been making waves, then and now. Back then it was because WikiLeaks published what the story terms as devastating material that Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning had copied from Iraq war logs and diplomatic documents, most notably video shot by American soldiers in an Apache helicopter in 2007 of them killing at least 18 civilians, including two Reuters journalists, on the streets of Iraq.

The story rightly points out that the above should have been prosecuted as a war crime. But like so many other sins, the US is guilty of this too, or rather, shoving this under the carpet. Now the US government is chasing Assange for so called violating the Espionage act.

But the US is guilty of violating so much more, Trump now and his predecessors as well are guilty as hell, the biggest violation that has been the sin of the US is the violation if human rights. From slave trading to the nuclear bombs in Japan to the war in Iraq, to white supremacy, to supremacy at all, and now violating the right to live of a specific person — Assange.

The US instead should look within and clean itself up of all the dung that it is filled with and also puncture this balloon of narcissistic attitude about the belief that it is the world’s superpower. What good is all of this when they will go to any extent to maintain their image? I think it’s an image that stinks of filth.

J Dias
By email