Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning is being held in military prison after being charged with
heinous crimes and will serve a life sentence. He is not a hero, he in not
a traitor. What he is however is a beacon of light showing what is wrong
with military intelligence. Thousands of soldiers in all branches of the
military have access to ‘classified’ documents. There are few, if any real
systems in place to curb the release of this information to the public. As
a former soldier with a secret clearance I can personally attest to the
lack of real security surrounding these documents and many like it. It is
actually a often remarked on bit of humor about how easy it is to obtain
supposed secret military documents.
Over the
years in my professional endeavors I have often been privy to classified
documents, some even proving that flight 93 was shot down on September 11th,
2001. I did not release these documents because I am and was aware of the
consequences for such actions. Bradley Manning was a child at the time of
his actions. He clearly did not understand what he was truly doing. His
state of mind should absolutely be a major point of his defense. He is
mentally unstable, that is clear from the minimal amount of research I had
conducted on the subject.
Further more, his treatment after his arrest I am sure has been hell on earth.
Once a soldier is labeled in the way Bradley has, he will and has become a
lighting rod for soldiers with a sickness that comes with premature
authority. The military is made up of young individuals who are granted
authority when they should not be. This leads to a mental shift turning
them into a demon among men. It is a sickness that was a major reason
for my not reenlisting.
So
what should happen to Pvt. Manning? He should serve jail time, and he
will. It should not be a life sentence. What he did is done often by soldiers
much higher up in the chain of command; this is yet another instance of
the Joe’s paying for the actions of the brass. He should also leave the
country, this should not be forced upon him, but I would recommend it for
at least 10-20 years.
The Untied States is a mess right now, and has been for quite some time.
Notice the one thing that is not mentioned in the majority of these articles?
It is the war crimes that were expose because of these information being
released. No one is being held accountable for the actions against the
Geneva Convention, international and domestic law. Instead this case is
being used as an iron curtain to shroud the real crimes. Everyone is to
blame, not just Bradley manning, but he is the one who will pay, and that
is wrong, very Wrong.