National Review Online
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Barack Obama is nothing if not consistent. He is lenient
with American enemies foreign and
domestic. Make no mistake, his decision to commute the remainder of Bradley
(Chelsea) Manning’s jail term sends the message that soldiers can betray their
nation — without regard to the lives of their brothers and sisters in arms —
yet still expect to receive compassion from their government, so long as
they’re “whistleblowing” on an unpopular war.
It’s important to properly understand Manning’s case.
Contrary to media framing, this was not a conventional “leak” prosecution.
Instead, Manning is responsible for one of the largest security breaches in
American military history. He downloaded, copied, and passed along to WikiLeaks
several hundred thousand files that comprehensively detailed American military
and diplomatic activities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond.
These files not only disclosed the identities of
individuals working with Americans and spotlighted vital and sensitive
classified diplomatic efforts, they provided a comprehensive overview of
American military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan — including detailed
descriptions of American tactics and strategies, right down to descriptions of
the vehicles used in various missions, the purpose of the missions, and the
targets of operations. In other words, to borrow a football analogy, it was
like handing the opposition your playbook — except with lives on the line.
During Manning’s trial, prosecutors introduced evidence
that al-Qaeda was not only gleeful about the leak (one of its spokesmen said,
“By the grace of God, the enemy’s interests are today spread all over the
place”), Osama bin Laden himself “asked for and received” the “Afghanistan
battlefield reports that WikiLeaks published.”
Moreover, unlike most leak cases, which involve the
dissemination of specific, limited amounts of information, Manning’s security
breach was nothing more and nothing less than a document dump. Manning, a
low-level soldier, did not and could not comb through his hundreds of thousands
of documents to mitigate any possible harm or prevent any possible loss of
life. Instead, he transmitted them en masse for publication.
Manning claims he disclosed the documents for the purpose
of stimulating “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” But that’s not his
decision to make. He disclosed the nation’s secrets without even knowing
whether those secrets could hurt or possibly kill the men and women with whom
he served or the men and women who worked with American forces. His actions
were worse than reckless. He acted with callous disregard and utter
indifference to human life.
His defenders like to point out that the prosecution
didn’t prove that anyone died directly as a result of Manning’s security
breach. Yet as our own Andrew McCarthy notes today, “in cases involving
classified information, the government frequently cannot reveal — let alone
prosecute — the damage done.” The very act of revealing the extent of the
damage can disclose more classified information. In fact, the damage is still
being done — as the enemy continues to use the information about American
tactics to adjust its own operations and methods.
Since his arrest and imprisonment, Manning has disclosed
that he is transgender and now goes by the name “Chelsea.” This has stirred up
considerable sympathy for him from some in the media. The New York Times even phrased the commutation as having “rescued”
Manning from an “uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the
men’s military prison at Fort Leavenworth.”
One does not have to engage in yet another wearying
debate about gender identity to understand that Manning — regardless of his
self-identification — betrayed his nation. No matter how troubled he was during
his Iraq deployment, he was fully aware of the laws and regulations that
governed his conduct, and he knowingly and deliberately violated those laws.
Finally, it is important to understand that Manning had
already been treated with considerable mercy before Obama commuted his
sentence. Manning was convicted on 17 counts of various violations of the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, pled guilty to three, and was acquitted of
two. Prosecutors sought a 60-year prison term, but the judge imposed a term of
35 years only, and he would have been eligible for parole after serving ten
full years. This was itself lenient, but not lenient enough for the Obama
administration.
Manning will soon walk free, ultimately serving a
sentence no longer than that of a garden-variety domestic felon. In the
meantime, across the globe, our enemies better understand our military tactics,
friends who’ve risked their lives to fight jihad live in fear, and diplomatic
trust is breached. Manning’s commutation was worse than foolish. It was unjust,
and it broke faith with America’s warriors. The price paid for betrayal proved
to be low indeed.
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