Manning is facing the possibility of 136 years in prison.

[thir]

decided to leak these documents after he became disillusioned with the Iraq war. He described how reading classified documents made him, for the first time, aware of the breadth of the corruption and violence committed by his country and allies.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...serves-a-medal

[Thorne]

Thanks for the links, thir.

And it seems to be consistent with what I noted. The only "secrets" he revealed were records of atrocities and potential war crimes, military indifference to civilian casualties, corruption up and down the chain of command, the kinds of things that the taxpayers SHOULD know about. Yeah, maybe leaking state department documents detailing the politicians disdain for anyone not American would prove to be embarrassing, but so what? If it would embarrass you to have someone find out you did something, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place?

So yeah, they seemed to get it right that he did not commit treason. He did break the law, so he should be punished. But if the punishment should fit the crime, maybe he should only be 'embarrassed' by those he outed. Sending him to prison for exposing criminal acts while letting the perpetrators of those acts go unpunished is a flagrant injustice.

[thir]

Thanks for the links, thir.

So yeah, they seemed to get it right that he did not commit treason. He did break the law, so he should be punished. But if the punishment should fit the crime, maybe he should only be 'embarrassed' by those he outed. Sending him to prison for exposing criminal acts while letting the perpetrators of those acts go unpunished is a flagrant injustice.

You are welcome, I only hope others will read them as well..

Sending him to prison for exposing criminal acts while letting the perpetrators of those acts go unpunished is a flagrant injustice.

You said it.