It is a sad and shameful sentence. This quote from the Baltimore Sun story about the news ( http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-bradley-manning-sentence-20130821,0,3733379.story ) sums it up well:
"When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system," said Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberty Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.
Bradley Manning remains a hero and martyr to the cause of justice, and his continued imprisonment will be a continuing stain on the honor and reputation of the U.S. government (what little it has). For those who may have forgotten or not been following the story closely, Bradley Manning exposed the "Collateral Murder" video of U.S. government troops firing from the air at civilians. Two of the members of the unit filmed in that video have publicly apologized to Iraqi families for their role in those war crimes:
More broadly, by exposing a large number of documents wrongfully being kept "classified" (i.e. secret from the American people), Bradley Manning blew the whistle on the trend toward secret government in the United States, a trend which is antithetical to democracy and holding those in power accountable to the people.
If you do not know what "your" government is doing, you cannot exercise oversight over that government. And if the people cannot exercise effective oversight, then the people no longer run the country. It's that simple.
The traitors who have persecuted Bradley Manning were unable to prove at trial that any of the information he released actually harmed anyone.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))