Nicholas Barrett

I just wanted to ask readers to spare a thought this Christmas for Private Bradley Manning.  He was the American solider who leaked the Iraq war documents to wikileaks and has subsequently spent the last seven months in solitary confinement and on suicide watch awaiting trial.  Private Bradley Manning allegedly came across this video of unprovoked US troops murdering civilians & journalists from the safety of a helicopter.  The White house ignored it and only seemed interested in punishing the source of the leak instead of the war criminals.

Bradley Manning did what prosecutors said those at Nuremberg should have done.  He saw war crimes including the murder and torture of innocent people and instead of being complicit he exposed it to the world.  By locking this man up the US army has sent a clear message that if you see something that is wrong and immoral you have a responsibility as a solider to say nothing and to forget about your responsibility as human being.  I’m not being overdramatic when I say that ethos is how and why the holocaust was allowed to happen.

This man should be rewarded because he’s a real war hero and he’s a million times braver then the cowards who shoot at children from the safety of a helicopter.