If only Bradley Manning had stayed silent while Iraqi detainees were whipped across the back with a large rod and hose resulting in cracked ribs, multiple lacerations, welts and bruises...there would be no further investigation.
If only Manning had stayed silent when a detainee was suspended from the ceiling by his wrists, whipped, and drilled...Manning certainly wouldn't be facing 52 years in prison then.
If only Manning had kept quiet about the systematically raped, molested, cigarette and acid burnt detainees...he certainly wouldn't be kept in isolation for 23 hours a day.
If only Manning had been complicit in the beating of a detainee with chains, cables, and fists until he confessed to killing six people...to the US, there's no need for further investigation.
If only Manning hadn't cared about the Mahdi army's prisoners who were found coughing blood and showing signs of rape....yawn...
If only Manning had stayed silent about the Iraqi whose fingers and toes were cut off and in need of his right leg amputated...nothing must contradict the projection of a stable and Democratic Iraq freed from Saddam Hussein by the United States.
If only Manning accepted that a man electrocuted in his feet and genitals and sodomized with a water bottle was the result of having fallen off his motorcycle...he certainly wouldn't be held without trial for 9 months.
If only Manning had shrugged off the 15 detainees abused in Husaybah...after all it was his job to.
If only Manning had sought to spy on foreign diplomats' credit card numbers, fingerprints, and frequent flier numbers...but of course it's Wikileaks that is damaging to our relations with these countries.
If only Manning was a former Bush official, complicit and active in the torturing of detainees...Obama would be pressuring for his release.
If only Manning had renditioned suspects, often innocent, to countries with the understanding that they would be submitted to harsh and reprehensible interrogation tactics...there would be no need for further investigation.
If only Manning had followed orders and continued to cover-up the severeness of sectarian violence, he 1,300 dead following the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra were "exaggerations"...he could be touring the country selling his autobiography instead.
If only Manning kept silent on the training of Bangladesh's RAB, accused of killing more the 550 since 2004, by UK forces on "interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement", something the US refused to do...he wouldn't have had to celebrate his 23rd birthday in isolation.
If only Manning were the Pope, covering up and impeding investigations into sexual abuse committed by the Catholic Church...millions would accept his papal bull.
If only Manning were a weapons contractor, profiting from the propping of Mubarak in Eqypt by the US, even though we were well aware of his willingness to torture, detain, rape, and kill his political adversaries...
If only Manning were a Pakistani militant conducting terror attacks in and outside Paksitan, including the 2008 Mumbai bombing...
If only Manning had laundered $52 million as Afghanistan's vice president...he too could then live in a luxurious waterfront home in Dubai and drive a Rolls-Royce.
If only Manning were the Governor of Afghanistan's eastern province Paktya, he could arrest contractors until bribes are paid...
If only Manning was caught with 273 pounds of heroin, US Puppet President Karzai would pardon him...
If only Manning had trafficked young "dancing boys" to be kept as possessions and raped by Afghan policemen...the US Government would be working hard to quash the story.
If only Manning had led our country into an necessary war, dismissing all evidence to the contrary, that resulted in the recorded deaths of 66,081 civilians...
If only Manning had bribed US contractors into being awarded lucrative subcontracts supplying food to troops in Iraq...
If only Manning were the world's largest source of funds for Islamis militant groups...