A traitorous hero?

DEAR SIR — There is a tricky fine line between espionage and disclosure. For many, Bradley Manning is justifiably a hero of our times. For some, he is enemy number one who more than deserves the stiff sentence handed to him (Manning faces 35 years in jail for leaks, August 22).

The jury is still out on whether President Barack Obama will grant him pardon, especially since Mr Manning’s actions, like Edward Snowden’s, cost him dearly politically with, for example, the European Union and Russia.

It is interesting to note that Mr Manning sees himself as a revolutionary whose first duty was to protect his country’s integrity. Of course, the costs of his actions are incalculable, both for himself and the US’s military standing in the world. We recall that here is a young lad whose very youth will now be lost to serving time based on what some would call naive revolutionary zeal. After all, the US’s soft power strengths lie in its ability to push the envelope on transparency. I would not be surprised if a Hollywood is made from this debacle.

At the same time, I am certain many more Mannings will follow in his footsteps. This is possible given that the Norwegian Nobel committee is under pressure to award their 2013 Nobel Peace to this convicted soldier. In my estimation, though, it would be a deserved accolade, unlike Mr Obama’s 2009 Peace Prize, which was awarded to, essentially, a war president.

The Manning episode reminds me of Mr Obama’s spiritual hero, Reinhold Niebuhr, who said: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary”.

Jeffrey Sehume