Would you call Bradley Manning a hero or traitor?

We pay the bills. DON“T DO FUCKED UP SHIT ON OUR DIME. Don’t be pissed that someone leaked that you fucked up. This wouldn’t have happened if people didn’t do SHIT THAT WAS WRONG.

well he’s a traitor, but there are sometimes people who help that are are traitors. He’s not as bad as the Rosenburgs

@jlelandg Or he thought that it would prevent bombing weddings in the future. Thus, saving the lives of our soldiers.

Bradley Manning done what he thought was true and Just. He may have seen that the land of the free and home of the brave was being over-run by lies ,greed evil and deceipt. In which case he is a True American Hero for putting his life on the line by attempting to wake up the dumbed down fluoride/fox fed masses.

@world_hello sorry but your first answer looks like you are on meth , your second looks as if you are on a mountain top with the Dali Lama.
Consistency is what the ppl need dude/dudette. :)

He is a traitor who over stepped his bounds. He violated the agreement of his top secret clearance. Plain and simple….. However the publishing of those documents was heroic and thankfully has begun to shed light on the irresponsible behavior of the various countries around the world.

Traitor. This wasn’t important stuff, like the Pentagon Papers. This was grade school stuff.

A private in the military is trained to FOLLOW ORDERS or die! When he receives a top secret clearance he is given the privledge of guarding this countries secrets. Whatever the secrets may be, it is not his place to judge the voracity of the content. To make these judgements is to be a traitor not only to himself (because of his oath), but this country that trusted him to protect.

I wouldn’t call him a hero. In order for a “whistleblower” to be a heroic, they actually have to expose something both unknown and horrific. Anyone calling him a hero should point out a document on Wikileaks that is shows US forces or officials behaving in some previously unreported nefarious way.

I feel comfortable calling him a traitor. The purpose of Wikileaks is not to hold the government accountable; the purpose of Wikileaks, as Assange made clear in his 2006 manifesto, is explicitly sabotage, to prevent the government “conspiracy”‘s ability to function and process information. I’m assuming Manning was keen on this purpose. Depending on how you feel about the US government, YMMV if you think such sabotage qualifies as morally upstanding, naive anarchism, or terrorist-like treachery; I would call it the second.

@thekoukoureport, nothing posted on Wikileaks was “top secret.”

@world_hello, what “wrong shit” came to light from Wikileaks that you hadn’t known about before?

I’ve said elsewhere, the most damaging leak in terms of how it reflects on the US, in my opinion, was that our soldiers in Iraq turned a blind eye to the horrific conditions and torture in Iraqi-run prisons. But it’s certainly not clear if the alternative (running the prisons ourselves) was even remotely feasible. So I’m not sure if this even qualifies as “wrong shit,” as opposed to “unfortunate shit.”

Nothing posted on Wikileaks comes close to the shit we already know about: the deception used to bring us into the war in Iraq, the sloppy ROE in both Iraq and Afghanistan that has led to thousands of civilian deaths, and our own forces’ torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

This is why I’m confused at the lionization of Manning and Assange; they haven’t really told us anything new or interesting about either of these wars, or our diplomacy, besides a mass of nitty-gritty details from the ground… many details of which I don’t think should be public.

@Odysseus True American Hero for putting his life on the line by attempting to wake up the dumbed down fluoride/fox fed masses. Like the Matrix some don’t want to wake up, they are afraid to take the Blue pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes.

@thekoukoureport A private in the military is trained to FOLLOW ORDERS or die! How far up the chain does it go before one is accountable for the war crimes they commit? Uncle Sam in past wars sought to smack down those who were involved not accepting their “I only did ut because __________ above me ordered me to do it, I had no choice”. If you see doctuments ferreted away that showed war crimes how high up do you have to be before you let the American people know how their tax dollars are spent?

@Qingu I wouldn’t call him a hero. In order for a “whistleblower” to be a heroic, they actually have to expose something both unknown and horrific. Maybe more proven than unknown though it is unknown to quite a few, many of whom don’t mind being mushrooms as long as they can drive their car, get all the cable channels and hot and cold running water, some of us know the dirt Uncle Sam does but like other people of the past <ahem> in Europe 70 years ago to the 90s they have ways of shutting the underlings up so the dirt don’t blow from under the rug. The leaked documents gives proof behind “I wouldn’t call him a hero. In order for a “whistleblower” to be a heroic, they actually have to expose something both unknown and horrific. “I told you so”.

he seems articulate, sweet, and conscientious, everything the American government isn’t, i fear for him, he is a sacrificial lamb, and i’m none too enamoured by his so called hacker mate, who grassed him up to the military authorities, presumably to avoid the heat by association, what a Judas, i hope his conscience never again grants him a moments respite.

@Hypocrisy_Central, can you be specific? What dirt do you think the leaked documents show?

@Qingu I was speaking to the privates clearence level not the information (which was classified).

@Hypocrisy_Central War crimes where not commited nor witnessed by the private. He put his nose where it was not authorized and stole the information for his own personal gain. If this was a war crime Like abu garhib, the private and the sergeant go to jail, don rumsfeld gets to write a book.
As for you question directly, You are trained when entering the army how important it is to follow orders, especially in wartime. Thats why if you commit treason on the front, you will most likely be killed on the spot. At least thats what they train you to believe. Anyone who has gone through basic training will tell you that and if you can’t comply you are tossed out right there.