This is what we’ve been talking about all these months.
It doesn’t matter what the reasoning is behind the traitorous acts of Bradley Manning, what matters is the act and the lack of accountability.
This week, the Associated Press reported that “Pfc. Bradley Manning had been charged with aiding the enemy among a total of 22 counts, but on Thursday the military publicly identified the enemy Manning’s actions aided.
“Manning and his attorneys are appearing at a hearing in a military courtroom at Fort Meade, near Baltimore, for two days of hearings in the case.
“Military prosecutors say Manning, a 24-year-old Oklahoma native, downloaded and transferred to WikiLeaks nearly half a million sensitive battlefield reports.
“Defense lawyers say that Manning was a troubled soldier who shouldn’t have had access to classified material and that the leaked material did little or no harm to national security.”
There are a lot of “should haves” in this case.
Manning may not have been qualified to have ever served his nation.
He may have had all sorts of personal issues that led to his poor decisions.
Or he may have just decided that he wanted to stab his nation in the back.
The point is, none of that matters.
He took the oath.
He violated the oath.
He should pay the price.
It’s just that simple.
After he’s paid that price if those who hate this nation want to make him a celebrity, they can, and the rest of us can’t stop them.
We can’t stop celebrities who want to hob-nob with foreign dictators and bad-mouth our nation in the process.
But treason is treason, and it should be treated as such.