Did we also fail him by making him recklessly release over 700,000 classified documents and ignoring the proper channels (the Military Whistleblower Protection Act) while knowing full well that his act would have major repercussions? Or maybe he failed himself and us by breaking the law and putting the country at risk by so carelessly realising classified information without knowing the full extent of the political and tactical implications his leaks could have had. While I don't think the wikileaks material did any harm and I'm glad some of that info is out there, let's not pretend this guy sat there and read each one of these documents. He acted recklessly and could have hurt us in a serious way if he did release something more sensitive. Vigilante justice is dangerous and we shouldn't laud someone who thinks they were in the position to be the sole arbitrator of justice. He isn't the hero that everyone is making him out to be and it's tiresome to see everyone defend him as a whistleblower when he failed to even attempt blowing the whistle. Instead he just uploaded, without a thought, everything he could get his hands on.
Having said that, as a hippie leftist, I'm very in favor of transparency and glad we are aware of some of the information (especially the apache video). Despite his recklessness, he did want to do the right thing and hoped to make change for the better. I sympathize with his views and feel for his core message. I don't want him to go to jail for 90 year and I feel bad for the guy in general. Personally, I find Obama's love for the Espionage act a very discouraging. But his tactics were risky and we can't ignore that acts like this are potentially dangerous and shouldn't be encouraged. How about we as a nation talk about the reform of whistleblower protection laws and have a conversation on that instead of promoting vigilante justice as heroic.
