Manning's WikiLeaks release made it impossible for America to ignore the moral horror of its foreign wars. That is true loyalty.

Unpopular internet opinion time: "That is true loyalty." Right. If you work for the US military, and you work with handling sensitive data, the worst thing you could possibly do is to release that data to a third party. That's pretty much your only job responsibility; maintaining data integrity, and he violated that responsibility.

I'm not say anything to morals, or virtues, or anything of that nature. If that's what he wanted to do to get the word out, so be it, but the people saying that he shouldn't go to jail or not face a trial are silly. They can't let this type of leak go unpunished in the US military, otherwise, what happens? Anyone who thinks they have some secret info that the public should know can release it without fear of harm or jail time? That's just not how it works, or should work, in my opinion.

I'm not against what Manning did, just to be clear, I'm just against the sentiment that he did nothing wrong and shouldn't be punished. He took some actions against everything he was taught, and right or wrong, he's going to have to face the consequences for his actions that he knew full well were against the rules and policies of his position.

People might not like how hes being treated, or that he might go to prison for the rest of his life, but he knew fully well the risks he was up against when he sent all that data to a third party.