What is the reason the GLBT Community doesn't support Bradley Manning?

[SlimJimmy]

249. You still won't answer the questions I asked. I can understand why. That wouldn't fit into the

narrative you've built that Manning was just a guy who did the right thing, and got caught up in events that he didn't create for himself. You won't respond to the fact that he released both military and foreign sources, or that the Obama administration has taken an extremely dim view of his actions. You won't admit that he couldn't have possibly read all of the material he released, or that what he did was both sloppy and criminal.

The fact that he didn't release TS material has no bearing on the fact that he *did* release hundreds of thousands of pages of material that *was* classified. A release that he knew was criminal, and a release he knew violated his non-disclosure agreement.

As to your assertion that I am merely defending the Bush administration, that's just laughable. Many good Democrats here (and even in this thread) have stated directly that what he did was both wrong and criminal. Are *all* of them secret Republicans? Please ... try to stay focused on the issue at hand. Calling into question a person's loyalty to the Democratic party is an old and too often used tactic here when one is backed into a corner. Trust me when I tell you that it has absolutely no affect on what and when I post.

Finally and really to the point:

He had many avenues *outside* of his chain of command that he could have used to disclose the wrongdoing that he found had occurred. Avenues ranging from the Army IG to what the military refers to as a "Congressional." A simple letter to his Congressman would have started an investigation. He didn't do either of those. Instead, he chose to release, without vetting, hundreds of thousands of classified documents. He has no excuse.

In my opinion, Manning is not a hero.