Four Reasons Why Pfc. Bradley Manning Deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Not a Prison Cell

[babsbunny]

http://www.truth-out.org/four-reasons-why-pfc-bradley-manning-deserves-presidential-medal-freedom-not-prison-cell/1310061217

Friday 8 July 2011
by: Chase Madar, TomDispatch | Op-Ed

We still don’t know if he did it or not, but if Bradley Manning, the 24-year-old Army private from Oklahoma, actually supplied WikiLeaks with its choicest material -- the Iraq War logs, the Afghan War logs, and the State Department cables -- which startled and riveted the world, then he deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom instead of a jail cell at Fort Leavenworth.

President Obama recently gave one of those medals to retiring Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who managed the two bloody, disastrous wars about which the WikiLeaks-released documents revealed so much. Is he really more deserving than the young private who, after almost ten years of mayhem and catastrophe, gave Americans -- and the world -- a far fuller sense of what our government is actually doing abroad?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. And, a statue, and the thanks of the American people. K&R

[MineralMan]

2. I respectfully disagree.

[Mimosa]

3. Bet nobody will now spill the truth about what's going on in Afghanistan and Libya.

Incarcerating Manning serves the goal of scaring any potential whistleblowers.

[EFerrari]

5. I wonder if it's even possible any more to suppress that kind of information. n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Four excellent points although the medal itself has been tarnished

by being awarded to real criminals like Poppy and Bob Gates.

[rhett o rick]

7. I agree. We are totally fucked. Giving medals to war mongers and throwing brave men in jail. nm

[KoKo]

6. K&R!

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[girl gone mad]

9. k & r

[B-Stupid]

10. I hope that little fuck rots in jail for the rest of his life

I have loved ones in both Iraq & Afghanistan. I don't care what anyone claims, he had no idea of the depth of info leaked. When all is said and done, he could have put a lot of services member's lives at risk.

[EFerrari]

11. There is zero evidence that happened.

Plus the leaks were screened by Wikileaks and the newspapers. So your venom is misplaced.

[B-Stupid]

13. Right, poor little Bradley.....

Remind me again why he dumped classified info? Was it to exposure so called war crimes or was it due to another reason?

[EFerrari]

14. Actually, I'm pretty sure he did it to make homophobic rednecks go apeshit.

:)

[B-Stupid]

17. If anything he gave the right more ammo to reinstate DADT

wait until the court marshal starts and this subject is brought up. I guarentee you that it will be an election issue come 2012.

[EFerrari]

19. Nope. DADT is unconstitutional. And discrimination is illegal in this country

Of course, if the Republicans get one of their morons elected, you now the ignorant ones like Palin who think the Constitution was revealed to Moses by God, then all bets are off.

[rhett o rick]

12. Sad. You blame him. He didnt send our service members into harms way. But you choose to blame him.

You even say "he could have put a lot of services member's lives at risk." Yeah and maybe he didnt. But Obama clearly did. Get your head on straight.

[xchrom]

15. Remind me, why is our country involved in illegal

Wars of occupation?

[B-Stupid]

16. I'm not quite sure how the wars are "illegal"

since they both received congressional approval. But regardless, the point is that Manning without care or concern, took it upon himself to leak highly classified information that could have put innocent lives at risk.

[EFerrari]

18. The Pentagon couldn't come up with a single name.

And unless you are The Great Kreskin, you don't know if he felt care or concern. In fact, there is evidence to the contrary, because he said plainly that exposing criminal behavior was his goal.

You don't support criminal behavior in our armed forces, do you?

[riderinthestorm]

20. I have loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq too. And they (along with me) are deeply concerned

about illegal activities going on there, war crimes in some cases.

They support exposing war crimes as do I. That's what Bradley Manning was doing. We don't do our servicemembers any good by enabling war crimes to occur. It endangers even more of our troops and puts them even more at risk by turning a blind eye to servicemembers who are thugs and criminals, they need to be located and exposed. Bradley Manning's attempt to talk to his supervisors about malfeasance went nowhere.

Not a single soldier has been put in harm's way by Manning's actions. Even the DOD admits that.

[sudopod]

24. At least this post is appropriately labled. nt

[KittyWampus]

21. Manning is an idiot who will get what he deserves for his gross stupidity.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. he is not eligible...

until he is officially a civilian.

[Dystopian]

23. KandR

peace~