This just infuriates me.
While plodding through the waist high piles of shit over on Freep, I happened to stumble across this little gem.
What should happen to PFC Bradley Manning, the young man now charged with the unauthorized access of and subsequently leaking of classified military information, namely the video that Wikileaks released under the title "Collateral Murder"? Should the United States government execute him? If your name is Congressman Mike Rogers, then you believe that yes, the young man should be put to death.
What... The... Fuck?!?
Seriously. This young man exposes the military cover-up of the MURDER of several innocent Iraqi civilians INCLUDING CHILDREN and you have a U.S CONGRESSMAN calling for his execution? It's sickening.
Now, I'm not a legal expert, but since when is something like this considered treason? Selling military technology to China? Treason. Reporting troop movements to Al Queda? Treason. Exposing the the cold-blooded murder of innocent children to the media and American Public? Most definitely NOT treason. This hero acted on his conscience in exposing what was a horrible use of military power and the cover-up that followed. This man should not be put to death. Hell, he shouldn't even be imprisoned!
If we get to the point in society where exposing corruption, cover-ups, and MURDER at ANY level of the government, military or not, is considered treason, I fear for our country.
Of course, to make it worse, we have these jokers cheering Congressman Rogers' opinion. (Warning, Freep Alert!)
Some of the nausea inducing comments on the story include calls to make the execution PUBLIC, execute the owner of WikiLeaks and those who support Manning, as well.
I agree, this is treason and should be grounds for execution. This punk needs to be made an example of. Make it death and broadcast it over every tv in the USA.
I agree. We let guys like the Walkers get off with prison and it just emboldens others. Make an example out of this guy and charge the Wikileaks owner, too.
Has this country lost it's mind?!? We, as a country, should be clamoring for Manning's release, but instead, we have the bloodthirsty, violent right wing calling for his death, and the rest of America has pretty much forgotten about this story.
P.S: Sorry for any disjointed thinking in this diary. I've got relatively poor writing skills as it is, and reading that story and the Freeper's comments about it have me SO ANGRY and SO FRUSTRATED that it's hard to think right.
UPDATE: For what it's worth, if anyone in MI-8 hasn't hit the polls yet, commenter vzfk3s brings up an important point:
Polls close in an hour for voters in Mi-8. Please write in Lance Enderle on the D side of the Ballot.