Bradley Manning (the Wikileaks source) will hear his sentence on Tuesday. In his court-martial, Manning has already plead guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him but vehemently denies the charge of “aiding the enemy.” Military lawyers argue that he couldn’t have been so naive to believe that he wasn’t posting these documents for the whole world to see, including the enemy. His defense is that he was wanting to give this information to the public, who deserve to know how the government is acting.
That is the problem with whistle-blowing with top-secret government information. In my mind (just so you know I was raised in a military household) it doesn’t matter his intent. He knew he was releasing top-secret documents on the Internet. And, as we all know from Facebook, what goes on the Internet can be seen by almost anybody. No matter if you put up privacy settings or not. I want my government to be open and honest, but I also know that there are things that can’t be told to the general public right away. There is a reason for top-secret security and top-secret documents.
Do I believe that Bradley Manning deserves life in prison? I don’t. He’s 25 years old and stupid, but I think he deserves to be punished. I just don’t know what that would be.
