Kevin Gosztola Reports On Bradley Manning's Unlawful Pre-Trial Punishment Hearing

[matthewf]

[JDPriestly]

1. Thinking about the accusations against Manning, I wonder what the reaction of our

government would have been had a German soldier exposed some of the cruelty, wantonness and violations of international law that Manning exposed -- like the shooting of the civilian reporter with a camera in Iraq?

I think our government would have viewed that German soldier as a hero.

If our military and government had not supported brutal dictators and committed heinous acts, then Manning would have had nothing of interest to expose or disclose.

The real crimes were those that Manning exposed. His exposure of them is not the crime. That he exposed information that did not concern criminal acts is the problem, but shouldn't the fact that he served us by showing US the horrible conduct of our own military be considered to be more important than the fact that he exposed military information about past actions that were legal.

It's a matter of perspective. If you look at the situation with some objectivity as a trial judge would, you see wrong on both sides -- Manning and the military.