Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Sad Saga of Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning is a soldier serving in the United States Army.  He has been a very bad soldier.  Manning is a homosexual.  He didn’t like how he was treated in the Army.  He gave some very serious classified information to a website called WikiLeaks.  This is operated by a rather unsavory Australian character known as Julian Assange. 

Thousands of leaked classified documents were released around the world.  This resulted in many bad things happening.  The military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the document provided by Manning resulted in increased danger for American soldiers and may have caused unnecessary battle deaths.  Many claim the documents Bradley Manning released had an influence in the Arab Spring uprising.  Bradley Manning has not served his country very honorably. 

Maybe he got confused when he raised his right hand at the induction center and promised to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.  (Sarcasm Alert) Maybe Manning heard he promised to be a good soldier if everything went his way and he didn’t have to struggle too much.  If people treated him as he liked and just danced in the streets with joy because of his sex life.  After that he’d consider the constitution protection stuff.  I’m sure it’s an easy mistake to make.

When reading accounts of Bradley Manning’s life it is often mentioned that he was “bullied” in high school and in the Army.  What exactly does that mean?  When I was serving in the military I can’t count the number of times people mocked my long last name that ends in “ski.”  I was teased because I like to constantly read.  I had numerous pranks pulled on me.  I got into shoving matches with people when I stood my ground.  A few times a punch or two was thrown before cooler heads prevailed.  Was I bullied?  Big guys were teased for being big, little guys were teased for being little, southerners were teased because of their accents, guys from New York were teased for the way they talked and there were often heated verbal exchanges combined with pranks.  Was everybody being bullied?  If we were then none of us let it bother us too much.  Nobody ever got mad enough to break the trust our country had put in us.  We all had access to top secret material.

It seems that Bradley Manning was upset with the military’s policy of “Don't ask, don't tell.”  Manning claims he wanted to serve in the military as an openly gay man, but during his time in the military, he made no secret of being gay.  His distress over the issue is a bit confusing.

When I was in the military there were gays serving and before I was in the military there were gays who served.  Years from now there will be gays serving in the military.  It just seems that other gays serving in the American military are doing it a bit more honorably than Bradley Manning.  They have a sense of purpose beyond their sex life.  Bradley Manning’s actions were a reflection on the type of person he is and does not represent other gays serving honorably in the military.

It appears Bradley Manning had gender identity issues and even spent time living as a woman.  With the past of telling people he was gay, having gender identity issues and being bullied, someone in the Army thought Bradley Manning was a perfect candidate to serve in the Army’s Intelligence branch.  (Sarcasm Alert) What could go wrong?

It is said he worked up to 15 hours in a dimly lit secure room.  (As someone who has served I can only say “He got to be in a room and had over 8 hours off?  Lucky guy.”)  He once was told he would lose his one day off a week for being consistently late. (Well, how about the person who had to stay late consistently because Manning wasn’t on time to take over?).  He overturned a table in a conference room and damaged a computer before being restrained.  (Yeah, just the kind of guy you want handling your intelligence.)

So Bradley Manning felt the best way to handle his situation in the Army was to release thousands of classified documents and videos to WikiLeaks.  The Army was very upset with this and gave Bradley Manning a court martial.  He was convicted of many things including violations of the Espionage Act.  He was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.  This makes sense since the United States is not at war with WikiLeaks, at least not at this time.  Bradley Manning has been sentenced to spend 35 years in a military prison.  He now wants to be called Chelesa and have gender reassignment surgery.   Aside from coward, traitor and a variety of expletives, Chelsea is not something I would call Bradley Manning.     

Military service requires sacrifice and dedication.  It’s not easy.  Serving in the military requires someone who can look at people enjoying a day at the park, or a sporting event, and feel they’re responsible for making certain nobody harms these people.  As long as they and their fellow servicemen wear a uniform, they will do whatever it takes to protect these people, their families and our way of life. 

Bradley Manning only thought about how everything affected him.  Bradley Manning’s actions may have led to the deaths of fellow servicemen and others helping the United States to fight our enemies.  He was a bad soldier.  Bradley Manning is a bad person. 


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