Bradley Manning Apologizes; Defense Cites Rough Childhood, Gender Identity Disorder

[AnnieBW]

6. I don't condone what he did, but...

This is a clear case of a person that SHOULD NOT have been in the Army. In peacetime (what's that?), PFC Manning would have washed out of boot camp. He clearly couldn't handle the psychological stress of being in the Army, let alone being a closeted gay man in the Army at that time. Add to that the stress of being deployed to a combat zone, and you've got a recipe for trouble. His commander's first inclination was correct - he did not belong in a combat zone. However, because of Boosh's war in Iraq, they had to take people into the Army that had no business being in there. They were desperate for bodies, and they took pretty much all comers. Manning was smarter than most, so he was placed into Intel.

Yes, Bradley Manning abused his privilege of access to classified material and he deserves to be punished for that. However, without fighting Bush's useless war, Manning would never have been in the situation to handle classified material in the first place.