Officers of the United States Government should be on trial -- not PFC Bradley Manning.

[premium]

271. Except that Manning was not a whistleblower,

he didn't follow the legal procedures for reporting what he believed were war crimes, he should have first aired his concerns to the IG's office and, failing that, written any congressperson or senator, he didn't, he gave them to a foreign entity, Assange, without even knowing what was in those cables, he put people who were working with the US Govt. in Afghanistan in danger, he made doing business with other countries more difficult.

Every military member, from the lowliest E-1 to the highest 0-9 has it hammered in them from the moment of joining the military, that guarding classified material is of the highest order, Manning didn't do that, instead he took it upon himself to release classified material without thinking about the consequences.
Well, now he's going to probably spend the rest of his miserable life in a max security prison and I won't shed one tear for him.