Why I think Bradley Manning should do time.

[malthaussen]

3. What bothers me is the violation of trust.

This is complicated by PFC Manning being an enlisted man. If he had been an officer, or a bureaucrat in a position of trust and authority, then he could have simply resigned, and in his capacity as a private citizen exposed the wrongdoing to which he was witness. Unfortunately an enlisted man does not have that option, which does serve as some amelioration of the act: what was the poor boy to do? Ultimately, IMO, this is one of those unsavory situations to which no solution can be found that is truly palatable. I could be much more easily argued to a position of greater leniency than otherwise, and arguably the conditions under which PFC Manning served his pre-trial incarceration, and other extenuating circumstances could reduce the sentence to time served, or argue for a later commutation. I was expecting the Judge to award 10-20 myself, unless the High Command had decided to make an example. The sentence as awarded is odd, IMO, since while severe, it is much less than could have been awarded had the Court decided to crucify the young man.

As for Lieutenant Calley, there is no doubt that justice miscarried there, IMO. Had I been the judge, I would have ordered him to be hanged. Speculation as to what injustice might have been perpetrated in the case suggested is rather pointless, IMO, as it is wholly counter-factual.

-- Mal