Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Cruel to the country, cruel to Bradley Manning

Apparently, one of President Obama's final acts in office is to commute the sentence of Bradley "Chelsea" Manning, duly convicted of disclosing close to a million classified and sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.  Now as much as this is cruel to the country--telling people that it does not indeed matter whether one keeps private information private--it is simultaneously cruel to Mr. Manning, who is said to have attempted suicide twice in 2016 and is on suicide watch at Leavenworth.

How is it cruel to Mr. Manning?  Simple; outside of Leavenworth, he will no longer be on suicide watch, and will not be eligible for medical benefits through the VA--this is part of a dishonorable discharge that was part of his sentence.  He will also have a tough time finding work as a result.  In other words, in commuting Manning's 35 year prison term, President Obama may well have given him a death sentence.   I hope I'm wrong for his sake, but this is where the evidence points.

3 comments:

Hearth said...

I was expecting my husband to be livid about Manning's commuted sentence, but he said much of what you did - he's a private with a dishonorable discharge for espionage, and he works in IT. He's never getting a job in his field again.

Bike Bubba said...

Bingo. And lack of gainful employment ain't gonna pay the rent or get him that operation he wants. Not quite a death sentence, but it's close.

It doesn't even set much of a precedent--the precedent that matters is the one set last year by Loretta Lynch and James Comey.

Gino said...

i was thinking much the same thing. I'm not at all bothered by his comutation, because his real sentence will the life he has ahead of himself.

bo bergdahl, who i expect to be pardoned on the last day, is a whole nother thing...