@anti-green
"It is of course lawful, but at the same time misguided, for clever lawyers to make excuse for treachery, especially when the treacherous behaviour is in accord with a left wing agenda."
Is treacherous behaviour somehow more acceptable if it's in accord with a right wing agenda? I am thinking here of torture, rendition, targeted killings, night-raids and drone missiles killing fifty to get one.

Halduell

You are correct in suggesting that neither a left wing agenda nor your so called right wing fantasies are relevant to the trial of Private Manning. His treachery as a serving soldier is directly to his country and indirectly to the allies and friends of the USA

It's ironic that most commenters are discussing ways that Manning should be punished for revealing the brutality and duplicity and imperial plotting of the U.S. and its immoral Allies.

Pouring molten lead into his ears or putting him on the rack or cutting his stomach and allowing his innards to flow onto a fire should be considered. These punishments were common during the Dark Ages so they are especially relevant to our current age!

The release of the video by Wikileaks showing the Apache gunship crew laughing as they mowed down unarmed Iraqi civilians was a golden moment in the barbarity of the U.S. and its armed forces.

Know thy enemy, ye fools!

@anti-green
Are you suggesting that torture, rendition, targeted killings, night-raids and drone missiles killing fifty to get one are nothing more than right wing fantasies? These acts have all been admitted by those committing them. Jeremy Scahill's book, Dirty Wars, is well documented, if you would like to take a look. Other places, too.
As to the issue of a serving soldier betraying his country by speaking out, soldiers of the Third Reich were adjudged guilty in the Nuremberg Trials for 'only' following orders. Such a defence/excuse was adjudged inadequate then, and it still is. Or it should be. A war crime is a war crime, although we all know it is only the losers, and never the winners, who are made to answer for them.

David G I agree. Obama is the one who should be facing charges of war crimes and trashing the US Constitution. In fact Congressman Walter Jones has initiated impeachment proceedings against Obama, however Congress is now too corrupted to vote on anything pertaining to integrity or matters of conscience.Even Ralph Nader just recently said words to this effect.

Halduell
The history of Western Civilisation has never been with-out blemish. However,the values of the enlightenment, of Voltaire, empirical schools of philosophy , the elevation of the individual over collective rights are to be cherished. Islam and Islamic terror is a current threat to the western way of life. There is indeed a clash of culture and civilisation between Western value and Islamic values; between English common law and Shia law.
You may well believe that Islamic Terrorists fight according to some sort of Queensbury Rules and/or inthe spirit of human rights. In this belief, I fear you are sadly deluded.