Bradley Manning justice: Our view – usatoday.com

Supporters of Bradley Manning demonstrate outside FBI headquarters in Washington in 2011.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

Bradley Manning's ardent supporters argue passionately that the 35-year prison sentence dealt Wednesday to the secret-leaking Army private is wildly disproportionate to his crime.

Manning, they say, acted out of patriotism exposing war crimes and other vital information that the military was hiding from the public, not from the enemy. No previous leaker, military or civilian, has been sentenced to more than two years, they note, and soldiers who committed violent crimes in Iraq have received lesser punishment.

Those claims are accurate, and if Manning were to spend 35 years in prison, the critics would have a compelling case. But that is rarely how the criminal justice system works, either in the military or in civilian life. With rare exceptions notably the death penalty and life without parole a sentence's headline number is not the one that counts. Maximum sentences arepaired with minimums, which can be further reduced for good behavior or other reasons. Manning's minimum is 10 years, of which he has already served three.

Even that much is stern punishment for someone who is not a spy. But excessive? Not if measured by the damage Manning did or the consequences if he had been set free. The court couldn't possibly have let the private walk without inviting others in the military to make their own judgments about what should be secret and what should not.

Nor were Manning's actions harmless. Purity of motive aside, he put people in danger and indiscriminately exposed a host of secrets that damaged U.S. interests abroad.

Manning used his security clearance to copy and release more than 700,000 classified files through an irresponsible organization, WikiLeaks. Some of that information such as video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed civilians was material the public deserved to see. It painted a fuller picture of the war in Iraq. But Manning thoughtlessly dumped much more, including 250,000 diplomatic cables that jeopardized U.S. information sources and exposed details of U.S. activity abroad that would have been better left confidential.

Like Edward Snowden, Manning felt compelled to expose injustice but lacked the wisdom or perhaps the means to do it in a productive way. He can't escape punishment for the consequences of his actions. To his credit, he seems to accept that fact.

"I will serve my time knowing that sometimes, you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society," said his statement in response to sentencing.

Yes, you do, particularly if you do it in a destructive way.

But as time passes and Manning fades from public view, courts would do well to keep in mind Manning's willingness to sacrifice himself for a greater good. It is evidence of honor, even if not in the conventional form the military preaches.

Ten years in prison, if that's what Manning serves, is more than enough punishment to deter others from following his path, and depending on his future behavior, perhaps a bit too much for a well-intentioned act of foolishness.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view a unique USA TODAY feature.

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