Bradley Manning is clearly a humanitarian hero, and I shudder to think how hard he is about to be hammered.

Socialization is a wonderful tool. No cognitive skills are needed, no insightful research or data are required, just an emotive response to someone else’s opinion.

Then bingo, a national traitor suddenly becomes a hero.

Love it.

@Spindoc
And so not just Daniel Ellsberg exposing the war crimes in Vietnam, but any German speaking out against the depredations of Nazi Germany would have been a national traitor?
Bingo! Love it!

Whatever one thinks of Bradley Manning's actions. his commitment to his principles contrasts sharply with the indulgent narcissism of Julian Assange, the hero of the glittering Pilgerati.

Marjorie has based her finding on what Manning and his hare-brained supporters say.

She mistakes aggression for courage. In many ways Manning's actions evidence the precise opposite of courage.

Manning had obligations to his country and his employer. He excuses his actions on the basis that his employer would not act on Manning’s instructions, in his mind giving him a status that only he and the deranged left are able to perceive.

We might await a trial, and some evidence from the prosecution, before jumping to conclusions based on misplaced hero worship, of an anti-hero.

halduell,

What was it I said about socialization?

You take a number of investigators, journalists, commentators, academics and genuinely concerned citizens and then throw in a serving military officer, bound by his oath to serve his nation, his oath of loyalty to his unit and his oath to keep official secrets secret, then apply the same criteria to all? Ooops!

I think you need to work a little harder on you post modernist deconstruction techniques, they are not quite seamless at the moment