Army Private Bradley Edward Manning, now known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kansas on May 17 after serving only seven years of a 35-year sentence for releasing approximately 750,000 classified documents to Wikileaks. His sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama three days before he left office.
In April 2015 - while in prison - Manning started receiving hormone therapy to satisfy his desire to appear as a woman. This therapy was bought and paid for by the American taxpayer. A month earlier, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Manning be referred to in either a gender neutral term or a feminine one going forward.
I won’t bore you with the creepy details, but Manning was a problem from day one in the Army and should have been discharged immediately. His image should be on a poster in every Army recruiter's office representing what to avoid.
Chelsea Manning is a convicted traitor. His crimes included espionage and theft, and he was convicted of 17 of 22 charges. He put the lives of Americans and their allies at risk. It is always difficult to determine whether or not anyone was killed as a result of security leaks, but given the enormity of the release and the fact that around 900 names of Afghan agents were revealed, it is safe to say that Manning, at a minimum, put lives in jeopardy. He certainly hampered U.S. intelligence efforts and created an international crisis for the United States and its relationships with foreign nations.
Manning should not be receiving benefits at the cost of the American taxpayer, but he should be rotting in prison. His release is one of many cornerstones in the Obama legacy.
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