Bradley Manning's Sentencing Hearing

I sat in the courtroom all day on Wednesday as Bradley Manning's trial wound its way to a tragic and demoralizing conclusion. I wanted to hear Eugene Debs, and instead I was trapped there, watching Socrates reach for the hemlock and gulp it down. Just a few minutes in and I wanted to scream or shout.

  David Swanson/ War Is a Crime

No kidding. And when I heard that in the sentencing hearing the prosecutor asked the judge for a 60-year sentence, the defendant’s attorney asked for 20 years instead, I had the same feeling I had when the whole thing first started and the defense was to be that Bradley Manning was a disturbed young man who shouldn’t have been given the position he held with the Army. I had a similar feeling when Manning apologized using that same defense at the end of his trial. It almost makes me feel like Bradley Manning doesn’t deserve the support he’s been getting from people who realize what exactly he revealed through his leaks. I pity Mr. Manning, but I don’t admire him. His defense should have been classic whistleblower defense, and his lawyer should have demanded sentencing to time served with retribution for having been tortured during that time.

I don't blame Bradley Manning for apologizing for his actions and effectively begging for the court's mercy. He's on trial in a system rigged against him. The commander in chief declared him guilty long ago. He's been convicted. The judge has been offered a promotion. The prosecution has been given a playing field slanted steeply in its favor. Why should Manning not follow the only advice anyone's ever given him and seek to minimize his sentence? Maybe he actually believes that what he did was wrong.

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This was the sentencing phase of the trial, but there was no discussion of what good or harm might come of a greater or lesser sentence, in terms of deterrence or restitution or prevention or any other goal.

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This was the trial of the most significant whistleblower in U.S. history, but there was no mention of anything he'd blown the whistle on, any of the crimes exposed or prevented, wars ended, nonviolent democratic movements catalyzed. Nothing on why he's a four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Nothing.

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What was discussed on Wednesday was as disturbing as what wasn't. Psycho-therapists, and relatives, and Bradley Manning himself --- defense witnesses all --- testified that he had been wrong to do what he'd done, that he'd not been in his right mind, and that he is a likable person to whom the judge should be kind.

Should likable people get lesser sentences?

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What, I wanted to scream, about the likability of blowing the whistle on major crimes? Shouldn't that be rewarded, rather than being less severely punished?

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The first witness on Wednesday was a therapist who had consulted with Manning while he was in the Army and in Iraq. This man noted that Manning had problems with his occupation, but gave no indication of what that occupation was. Manning was under stress, but the moral crisis discussed in [Manning's] chat logs [with the snitch who turned him in] was never mentioned. Instead, Manning's lawyer directed the witness to discuss "gender issues."

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The next witness was a therapist hired to work for the defense. He said that Manning suffered fits of rage in the military. Shouldn't he have? If you'd been dropped into the war on Iraq and seen what it was, how would you have most healthily reacted? This therapist believed Manning suffered from gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder. The whole room seemed to suffer from basic human decency dysphoria. [...] Manning, we heard, had been stressed out over his boyfriend, and as a result of his alcoholic parents. The notion that war could cause stress didn't enter the courtroom.

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Manning suffered from Post-Adolescent Idealism (if only that were contagious! I wanted to scream).

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Manning's sister said that he had calmed down and matured during the past three years. No mention of his naked isolation cell. No mention of the existential threat hanging over him. No mention of how clear-minded and principled he appears to have been back when he was supposedly immature.

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Manning wanted to end wars that the majority of Americans think were wrong ever to have begun, and he helped to end them --- at least in the case of Iraq. He'd had clearly degree. A full-blown public debate on abolishing the institution of war is yet to come.

Don't hold your breath.

And, Manning himself, I think, blew it. I can’t really blame him, either, I suppose. I’m sure he knows the depths to which he can be further punished. Perhaps he was assured that if he pled this way he would be shown leniency in his future captivity. Who knows? It was his choice to make. Still, he has helped, but then set back immensely the cause of justice and, while I don't believe there is any chance of preventing future wars, at least prevention of future war crimes.