Chelsea Manning explains why she leaked secret military documents

[BeyondGeography]

[jmbar2]

1. She is a lovely young woman

Yeah, she did wrong, but has paid her debt to society. I admire her courage to fight to be herself.

[FM123]

2. Hard to believe

that she was given a 35 year sentence, so harsh. I'm glad president Obama commuted her sentence, in my opinion, the 7 years she served was enough.

[cab67]

3. I've got very mixed feelings.

The documents she leaked may not have done much more than embarrass the government, but leaks overall can be very damaging. There are usually very good reasons documents are classified; she took it upon herself to make that determination for the documents she released.

That being said, 35 years was excessive. And though I cannot regard her as a hero for leaking documents, her courage in coming out and fighting for proper treatment cannot be denied.