[ok_craig]

And in reality, he's probably a mix of all of the above, like most people. Everyone's got ideals, everyone's got insecurities.

We tend to project our insecurities more when we're having casual conversation with people we consider friends.

We tend to project our ideals more when we're having serious philosophic debate, defending our character, or, you know, being charged with war crimes.

[jbester]

Technically, he's charged with espionage and giving aid to the enemy. With the stated motive of "sparking a public debate" regarding current war policy, a more targeted leak would have achieved the stated goal, in line, with, say, the pentagon papers or the AT&T/NSA leaks or even the his own later leak of the gun-cam video.

I have a hard time believing the flagrant and wanton release of material was and is not suicide by Court Martial.

[ok_craig]

It's pretty easy to call someone a martyr and leave it at that. Neither you nor I really know Bradley Manning. For someone who's not really a journalist, knowing exactly what a more "targeted" leak would entail is not exactly instinct.

He's pleading guilty to releasing the information, so if you want to argue he's guilty of aiding the enemy based on what he released, I'm happy to hear it. But so far, there's no evidence that he wanted to be caught.

You're trying to extrapolate character judgments from a series of online conversations between him and one individual, and the charges against him. Meanwhile, ignoring his own stated motives or things like the opinions of people who know him more intimately. It's just not convincing.

[mpyne]

Even the U.S. government isn't stupid enough to execute Pfc. Manning for aiding the enemy.

And even if the U.S. government was, Col. Lind (given that she will be the single-point-of-lightning-rod for any sentence adjudged) would not be that stupid as she probably has better things to do than get "martyred" herself after the trial is over.

But let's say that Col. Lind wants to live in a "Witness Protection"-esque program for the rest of her life... any sentence of execution has to be approved by the President himself (MCM Rule 1207), and whatever else you might say about him, he's more politically-savvy than to allow that to happen.

But wait.... this is all only possible if the death penalty was declared from the start, and the government chose from the beginning not to go for it. So it looks like "suicide by court-martial" is out of the running, at least.

[dmm]

The proscecuter of the case said they are not pursuing the death penalty.