Why I think Bradley Manning should do time.

[ljm2002]

5. No offense taken...

...yours is a reasoned position. One that I disagree with but certainly not offensive.

One thing you said, however, is flat out wrong: "Mr Ellsberg violated no trust of position when he released the information." Now it is true he was not in the military; however, he did have a privileged position as someone with a Top Secret clearance and he did swear an oath to honor those classifications and not reveal any information so classified. Also I think it is fair to point out that Manning's clearance level was not that high, and none of the information he revealed was Top Secret, only Secret. So from that point of view, Manning's violation was less than Ellsberg's.

Anyway, Manning was kept in very inhumane conditions for the first 8 months and has now served 3 years in total (*). So I think it would have been appropriate to let him go with time served. Well that was probably not in the cards no matter what, but I wish it had been.