Courts martial

Bradley Manning

35 years, maybe paroled in nine or ten?  To me, it sounds like a pretty stiff term for, essentially, embarrassing the USofA.  It's way beyond terms given to previous leakers, especially considering that the vast majority of them never were prosecuted — and, no, I don't expect Clinton in blackface to issue a pardon.

On the bright side, if he can convince a psychiatrist (and based on previous case law), Manning may be able to get the military to provide and pay for sex reassignment treatment and surgery while he's incarcerated, and leave the brig as a thirty-something woman.  I'd love that.

Robert Bales

Bales had to be extremely fucked up when he massacred all those villagers in Afghanistan.  PTSD is kind of assumed for combat soldiers, so I guess the plea bargain that let him escape the death penalty makes sense.  On the other hand, I really would like to know who was providing the steroids that pushed him over the edge.

Somehow, I don't see Biogenesis (of Alex Rodriquez fame) running a clinic in Afghanistan.  Was it the military getting the troops more thoroughly amped?  We need more Bradley Mannings.

Nidal Malik Hasan

The Army psychiatrist who shot up Fort Hood rested his case today, offering no defense.  The lawyers assigned to help him represent himself believe he is aiming for a death penalty so he can become a "martyr."  His motive for the shootings, it seems, was that he didn't want to be deployed to Afghanistan to take part in the slaughter of other Muslims.

If they sentence him to life without parole, rather than death, he'll still be a "martyr."  A paraplegic living out his life in a military prison is likely  to suffer a lot more than a man who gets to die with reasonable dispatch.

And so...

I feel sympathy for all three of these poor bastards.  All three, as I see it, probably were brain-fucked by the USofA.