Embarassing the Government Worse Than Rape or Manslaughter?

Trey Smith

In today's Morning News video, I shared a clip from The Young Turks in which Cenk Uygur talks about several individuals who were convicted of bona fide espionage and not a one of them received a sentence as stiff as the one received by Bradly Manning. These men were convicted of giving or selling information to the Soviet Union or Russia and, in two cases, the information include the explicit outing of undercover agents. Compare this to the Manning trial. The government could not produce as little as one person's life being placed in jeopardy as the result of his disclosures.

But we don't need to look the crime of espionage to see how unjust Manning's sentence truly is. Go peruse any news website and you can easily find individuals convicted of crimes that injured, terrorized and/or killed other human beings whose sentences are far less than what Manning received. In the span of about 5 minutes, I found several men convicted of 1st or 2nd degree rape and the longest sentence was for 30 years -- 5 years LESS than what Manning got.

You can do the same kind of search for those convicted of armed robbery, manslaughter, 2nd degree murder, vehicular homicide and a variety of white collar crimes. In so many instances, you'll find sentences of 5, 10, 15, 20 or, maybe, 25 years. These are crimes that often irreparably impact the lives of the victims and their families. Many are crimes of extreme violence and terror. And yet, despite the fact that it can be easily proved how the commission of these crimes resulted in severe impacts on known victims, a significant number of those convicted were sentenced to less time in prison -- sometimes far less -- than Manning.

What conclusion can we draw from these disparities? It is more than obvious that the institution of government is far more important than human life itself! Harm actual human beings and you will be dealt with in one way, but expose government secrets -- a lot of which shouldn't have been secret in the first place -- and you will be smashed into the ground.

Just as a corporation has been declared a person, it seems the executive branch of the federal government is claiming this same title. Not only does the executive branch want to be viewed as a person, but it claims it is the most important person on the face of the earth! Kill and injure other people -- the real ones -- and you take your chances in court. Embarrass the supreme personage of the government and you will have hell to pay!