Bradley manning, hero or villian?

[Evil Smurf]

He is a hero for standing up to the administration of a war criminal Obama. He risked his life so that the world would know that the American government does not give a shit about you and is spying on you. Same as Assange and any other whistle blower.

 

[the clockmaker]

Here's the thing, if he had looked at the footage of the chopper attack and gone, 'that's not okay' then I could see where he was coming from while still disagreeing. But then he released thousands upon thousands of irrelevant files. No way did he check through all of them, no way did he consider the consequences for all of them.

Fuck. That. Guy.

 

[Reeve]

I repeat AGAIN, that NO incident has been found where someone was harmed or killed as a result of the info Manning leaked. Look at my other post for the link to the court case stuff.

 

[InfinityCubed]

He did what he knew to be right despite possible negative consequences for himself. Why are we arguing about this?

 

[CynicalWolf]

Manning did what was right.

Too bad the media over here in the United States is going to paint him as a villain no matter what happens. And as usual, the sheep (80% of the population who find it impossible to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions) are going to swallow it up like pudding via CNN, Fox News, etc.

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

 

[Able Seaman Staines]

Hero of course. The laws in question have been put in place not to protect the public but to protect corrupt people used to VERY LITERALLY getting away with murder. Manning has some balls on him, but he should have covered his own arse better if he wants to get in an arse kicking contest with a giant angry killer robot military-industrial complex porcupine.

 

[secretkeeper12]

It was his obligation according to the fuckin' law to report those crimes. But since no one did anything about it what was he supposed to do? Stay silent while the military goes around committing war crimes? He didn't do anything wrong.

My honest feeling is that Manning is a traitor and betrayed the his oath of service. His action may have put the safety of service men in danger.

It's because of opinions like these that the government is able to do whatever the fuck it wants. Please, explain to me how exactly did he endanger anyone, and what is so treacherous about being a whistleblower and exposing fuckin' war crimes? Without people like Bradley Manning the government would be able to do whatever the hell it wants and no one would ever know. You should be thanking the man.
You actually swallowed the bullshit that the media served you about him? The same media outlets that refused Manning's leaked info. Good journalists would take that information in a heartbeat and publish it. Only the government puppets wouldn't. And that's who you chose to side with?

As a private your duty is to follow the orders your superiors give.

As a solider he took an oath that he wiling betrayed.

You will not change my mind on this topic.

Loyalty to your country above all else.

The whole thing begs a serious question too, which is the bigger traitor to you as a citizen, the government killing innocent people in your name or the individual who exposes it?

If it benefits my country then I do not care. What Manning did negatively affected my country and a betrayal of his oath. HE is a traitor.

What makes the U.S. so damn special? There's nothing we do that justifies the war crimes Manning exposes. If anything, the fact that our government is willing to do such atrocities shows it is they who deserve contempt. This type of fanatic nationalism is what leads to dictatorships. Do you really want to pave the way for this generations Fascist party?

 

[Auron]

It was his obligation according to the fuckin' law to report those crimes. But since no one did anything about it what was he supposed to do? Stay silent while the military goes around committing war crimes? He didn't do anything wrong.

My honest feeling is that Manning is a traitor and betrayed the his oath of service. His action may have put the safety of service men in danger.

It's because of opinions like these that the government is able to do whatever the fuck it wants. Please, explain to me how exactly did he endanger anyone, and what is so treacherous about being a whistleblower and exposing fuckin' war crimes? Without people like Bradley Manning the government would be able to do whatever the hell it wants and no one would ever know. You should be thanking the man.
You actually swallowed the bullshit that the media served you about him? The same media outlets that refused Manning's leaked info. Good journalists would take that information in a heartbeat and publish it. Only the government puppets wouldn't. And that's who you chose to side with?

As a private your duty is to follow the orders your superiors give.

As a solider he took an oath that he wiling betrayed.

You will not change my mind on this topic.

Loyalty to your country above all else.

The whole thing begs a serious question too, which is the bigger traitor to you as a citizen, the government killing innocent people in your name or the individual who exposes it?

If it benefits my country then I do not care. What Manning did negatively affected my country and a betrayal of his oath. HE is a traitor.

The death of innocents benefits your country how? This is a sad example of primitive nationalism... And whenever someone asks me why foreigners have a bad view of the US I'll quote this post.

 

[octafish]

it was reckless, immoral, and most likely ended up getting some of those who worked with NATO killed. I have no sympathy for him in regards to his conviction or punishment.

This is in clear contrast to the collateral murder video, where US forces opened fire on civilians and their rescuers, and definitely killed them. You're right, he's such a bad guy (reckless AND immoral) for exposing that to the world.

I don't believe bradley manning was behind that particular leak; I think what he did was upload a significant amount of US Diplomatic cables.

Even if he was, that incident was already known even before the video was released; and unfortunately, collateral damage and friendly fire are regrettable but hardly unheard of.

He was found guilty of that particular leak, so I would hope there was some evidence that he leaked it.

He is a whistleblower, whistleblowers are both brave and necessary, I don't know about Hero. If he hadn't broken his oath he would have just been following orders. Not always the right thing to do.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I wouldn't say he is a hero but he is most certainly not a villain. Whilst the US government will say that his leaks lead to 'the enemy' getting military intel they also exposed some of the shit they have done and were covering up. And though some of the information may have compromised military informants in Afghanistan he wasn't directly responsible for publishing ANY of the information he just handed it to someone he thought could get the relevant documents to the public. So any harm that came to those people isn't blood on his hands.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Hero or villain? Well, that's a little bit too black or white, in my opinion. Yes, he did break certain laws and oaths, but "ethical" or "heroic" doesn't allways mean "lawfull" or "honest". Call him a traitor, call him unpatriotic, call him whatever you want, the guy chose to stay by his principles, and that's something that I can respect.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

As a private your duty is to follow the orders your superiors give.

So be a mindless drone? This is why people hate the American Military.

As a solider he took an oath that he wiling betrayed.

He is sworn to defend the US from enemies both foreign and domestic. That includes his own government and military. It's people like him who may one day speak out in defense of people like you if ever the corrupt govenment and it's friends come-a-knockin'. You're betraying him if anything.

You will not change my mind on this topic.

uh-huh....

Loyalty to your country above all else.

You would've made a great Nazi.

If it benefits my country then I do not care. What Manning did negatively affected my country and a betrayal of his oath. HE is a traitor.

Nononono. You're country ALREADY committed war-crimes among other things. Bradley just revealed them.

OT:
Whistle-blowers are heroes. They put themselves on the line to provide us ALL with the truth. Anyone who thinks that the truth should be kept secret is just trying to preserve their own little lie.

 

[Caiphus]

He's a braver man than I am, at least.

As long as the collateral damage of him releasing the documents is low, then he's a hero.

 

[alandavidson]

Here's what happened when Manning took his "Heroic Actions"

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran were almost destroyed. As a result, operations to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon have been severely compromised.

Relations between North Korea and China are severely strained. As a result, operations to gather intelligence on their nuclear program are almost impossible.

Details on US Covert Operations have been released, meaning that the enemy now has a blueprint for how our Operators work. As a result, anyone in US or affiliated Special Operations is at severe risk.


Why is this a big deal to me? Because my friends and my family are now at risk because of this kid.


Bradley Manning can go rot in a cell for the rest of his miserable life.

 

[Vegosiux]

Here's what happened when Manning took his "Heroic Actions"

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran were almost destroyed. As a result, operations to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon have been severely compromised.

Relations between North Korea and China are severely strained. As a result, operations to gather intelligence on their nuclear program are almost impossible.

Details on US Covert Operations have been released, meaning that the enemy now has a blueprint for how our Operators work. As a result, anyone in US or affiliated Special Operations is at severe risk.

Even the "Eternal Empire" didn't last forever. I get that people are pissed off when the number one world superpower status of their country is compromised, but did you seriously take that position for granted?

Why is this a big deal to me? Because my friends and my family are now at risk because of this kid.

Your family and friends are at risk because your country is running certain campaigns and operations.

What you're doing here is akin to being convicted of a crime and blaming your sentence on the person who reported you and testified against you instead on the fact that you committed a fucking crime.

Bradley Manning can go rot in a cell for the rest of his miserable life.

Tough words. Those make a man feel big, huh?

 

[Stryphoon]

Exposing what a government/military has done is not the same as exposing what they are planning to do or are currently doing. Because if it is something they have already done, then you can be pretty damn sure the target of it already knows about it. Most likely they knew about it well before it got leaked on account of it directly happening to them first hand rather than them waiting to hear about it 2nd or 3rd hand.

A government is supposed to represent the people, not rule them. As they represent us I think we are entitled to know anything and everything they are doing on our behalf. Obviously they should not release such information until after it has been finalized and everyone is out of harms way. Yes, under this system they can still do what ever the hell they want, but we get to hold them accountable for it so they don't get to think along the lines of "we have a green light to do what ever the hell we want, everyone o nuts!".

 

[Vegosiux]

So you think it's a crime to stop North Korea and Iran from obtaining nuclear material and/or nukes. And having any covert operations at all is a crime too. Interesting.

No, that is not what I think.

I will have to politely ask you to stop misinterpreting what I say. 'specially ironic since not 20 minutes ago you were chewing another poster out in R&P for misinterpreting a yet another poster.