I'll admit, part of me sympathizes with her. People showing up in wars they have no business being in isn't new, Hericletus mentioned it 2500 years ago. I think everyone who's ever gone to war has known one. And Manning was one.
She should've been kicked out in boot. She should've lost her clearance when she put videos from inside a SCIF on fucking youtube. She shouldn't have been permitted to deploy. She assaulted superiors, then peers.
At every stage of this, her leadership failed her. The wartime attitude of "we need a body in that slot. A shitty body is better than nobody" won over better judgement.
Warfare's hard enough when you know down to the bottom of your soul that you do have the man on your left and the man on your right. The Army took a mentally ill, security breaching, fucked up young lady with no espirit de corps and left her alone with nothing but a pile of work and a secure network. Even the worst turds usually get battle buddies to fill sandbags with.
But she still swore the oath.
She still wore the uniform.
She still stood up and was recognized.
And then she made the choice to turn her back on all of that.
She used her access to put how many people at risk.
That's not whistleblowing. That's fucking treason.
And she kept on doing it. For months.
Only caught because she kept telling people, and one finally went to the authorities (although, given her deteriorating condition, it was only a matter of time).
She claimed she had no idea her work could cause any harm, which is either a colossal lie or an indication that she's too stupid to have ever been trusted with a clearance in the first place. The fact that the State department just had a mess to clean up and we got everyone targeted out of harm's way is nothing short of a fucking miracle.
Ever since, she's been stuck in the fumbling fingers of Leavenworth as they ham-handedly try to accommodate her. A swift execution would be as much mercy as justice at this point.
President Obama claims she's served an appropriate time for her crime. My disagreement is considerable, but I'm not the one in the big chair.
Whether done for stated reasons or for some shell game to later catch Assange or Snowden is for history to find out, if they can ever make sense of the true irony that is this administration's transparency.
Let her go in disgrace and die in obscurity then. She leaves behind only a lesson in the failures of leadership and passing the buck.
She should've been kicked out in boot. She should've lost her clearance when she put videos from inside a SCIF on fucking youtube. She shouldn't have been permitted to deploy. She assaulted superiors, then peers.
At every stage of this, her leadership failed her. The wartime attitude of "we need a body in that slot. A shitty body is better than nobody" won over better judgement.
Warfare's hard enough when you know down to the bottom of your soul that you do have the man on your left and the man on your right. The Army took a mentally ill, security breaching, fucked up young lady with no espirit de corps and left her alone with nothing but a pile of work and a secure network. Even the worst turds usually get battle buddies to fill sandbags with.
But she still swore the oath.
She still wore the uniform.
She still stood up and was recognized.
And then she made the choice to turn her back on all of that.
She used her access to put how many people at risk.
That's not whistleblowing. That's fucking treason.
And she kept on doing it. For months.
Only caught because she kept telling people, and one finally went to the authorities (although, given her deteriorating condition, it was only a matter of time).
She claimed she had no idea her work could cause any harm, which is either a colossal lie or an indication that she's too stupid to have ever been trusted with a clearance in the first place. The fact that the State department just had a mess to clean up and we got everyone targeted out of harm's way is nothing short of a fucking miracle.
Ever since, she's been stuck in the fumbling fingers of Leavenworth as they ham-handedly try to accommodate her. A swift execution would be as much mercy as justice at this point.
President Obama claims she's served an appropriate time for her crime. My disagreement is considerable, but I'm not the one in the big chair.
Whether done for stated reasons or for some shell game to later catch Assange or Snowden is for history to find out, if they can ever make sense of the true irony that is this administration's transparency.
Let her go in disgrace and die in obscurity then. She leaves behind only a lesson in the failures of leadership and passing the buck.
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