"I look back on my decisions and wonder how on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better." - Bradley Manning statement at sentencing.
Let's review what Bradley Manning really told the world when he released the documents to Wiki-leaks (don't forget that Julian Assange is still trapped inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London going on 14 months). For context, Manning, in a private meeting with Assange on 22 May, 2010, expressing the aim to start, "hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. if not ... than [sic] we're doomed as a species."
Manning released some mildly interesting things such as Armenia's offer to take 3 to 6 prisoners from Guantanamo off our hands, oh, and the Armanians were shipping weapons to Iran. And at times the sublime melted through such as learning the Bulgarian soccer team was owned by the mafia or that the US would not turn over the CIA officers involved when, "Khalid El-Masri, an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant, was mistakenly kidnapped and held for months in Afghanistan." These were just the insults. It's the truth about our military action that really hurt.
Manning exposed two attacks that have yet to result in anyone in the US military or government being charged. First he exposed a US attack in Afghanistan known as the Ganai Airstrike, which, "refers to the killing of approximately 86 to 147 (NOT terrorists) Afghan civilians, mostly (not tried and convicted) women and children, by an airstrike by a B-1 Bomber on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai (sometimes spelled Garani or Gerani) in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan," according to Wikipedia.
Find out what's happening in Hudsonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Manning is a hero.