It took a while, but the Army finally got around to charging Manning, the independent spy who downloaded thousands of confidential documents and spread them to the four winds. As most of us had expected, Treason was among those charges. The prosecution team has announced that they will not seek the death penalty. It is a shame that those soldier placed in harm’s way as a result of Manning’s duplicity received no such consideration from Manning. Manning’s family and friends received no such consideration from Manning. Pfc. Manning will now face a Court Martial, and very probably be convicted. (He has already confessed not only to the crime, but went into great detail as to its magnitude and the methodology he employed. In a civilian court, the confession could probably be thrown out, no such luck for bad Brad in the military.) What ever his fate with the Court Martial is, he very richly deserves what ever punishment they decide upon.
For the better part of a year now, I have been reading and listening to Manning be defended by those on the left as some sort of heroic whistle blower. To this, I say baloney. Let us deal with this argument forthwith. First off, the Army has a forum for whistle blowers. That forum is called the chain of command. If Pfc. Manning felt any of the direction given him by his immediate superior was in fact illegal, he could have followed that chain to his boss’ boss. Absent satisfaction from that person, he could have followed the chain to the next person in line. What Manning himself said, he did it apparently because he never felt fully accepted by the heterosexual dominated U.S. Military. This is not a whistle blower, this is a snot nosed brat who is used to a pampered existence. Political Correctness once again claims lives, and the left once again attempts to deflect responsibility for the toll of their policies. Political correctness you see allowed the Bradley Mannings of the world to slip through the man made cracks in military screening processes. Manning’s superiors knew that Manning was unfit for his job, unfit for duty, and refrained from acting on this knowledge because of the issues which would have resulted from attempting to remove him from military service. Thank you liberals. The ironic thing is this, allowing gays to openly serve in the military is an issue fabricated entirely by people who genuinely hate the military. What Manning did was not whistle blowing. It was a blatant disregard for the lives of others, lives he had sworn an oath to help protect. It was an arrogance that he, a snot nosed little kid knew better than every commissioned officer in the military about what the world had a right to know about the inner workings of our foreign diplomacy and military operation. Manning took it upon himself to reverse the decision of thousands of people with far greater responsibility what should be kept secret and what shouldn’t.
For those among you who feel that punishing Manning will dissuade whistle blowers in the future, I say fear not. Manning’s punishment will serve as an example to those who are contemplating committing similar crimes. For that reason, I would love to see this played out in the public eye. I wish Pfc. Manning the best of luck in his new career, turning big rocks into smaller ones in Leavenworth, Kansas.
