So, Obama just reduced Mannings sentence.

When a commutation is given, the sentence someone is currently serving is cut short. But a commutation does not suggest they are innocent, and it does not do away with civil disabilities like not being able to sit on federal juries or vote. Commutations are typically given while someone is serving time, and the president can only commute federal sentences. State-level convictions are out of the president’s reach.

I thought she was given a commutation, not pardoned??

My understanding is that she was eligible for parole after 8 years. In theory this commutation could potentially only take a year off her sentence-if she would have been given parole at that point-which we have no way of predicting. 

So while I don't like what she did, the court system did punish her. Not only is she still a convicted felon, she is one who pretty much the whole world knows about. She will not be able to hide. She was also dishonorably discharged from the military which means she will not have access to military benefits. 

To me this isn't a liberal thing or a conservative thing. To me (and since I am not a lawyer my opinion probably doesn't matter to some) it boils down to the fact that there was a sentence, there was a possibility of parole allowed after a certain time and this commutation seems to fall on the near side of the guidelines laid out by the judge. Whether it be in front of a parole board or the President, I am not sure that matters.

You need to read up. You're wrong on when she realized who she really was and what affect (or not) it had on her.

And you need to really watch being so offensive to suggest that someone would become transgender just to get out of prison.

Much the same.

I view him as more of a whistleblower than a traitor and think those are very different things.

Isn't this what people are saying needs to change to make America great again?  Things will never change with this attitude.

I think some are severely downplaying the extent of the information she released.  The New York Times article does a good job or addressing the scope of the information released as well as the implications particularly regarding releasing diplomatic cables with sensitive conversations and identified people who had cooperated with the US intelligence community.  She was absolutely not simply a whistle blower, releasing information about understated civilian casualties.  


www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=politics&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Politics&action=swipe&region=FixedRight&pgtype=article


I don't think she should be released because she was transgender - I do think the military needs a much better policy than solitary confinement, and it probably did strengthen her argument about excessive sentencing.  

We could say the same about the Wikileaks of DNC and John Podesta. No one was hurt, and even though it was illegal it brought public attention to things which we should know about. 

Then why didn't he pardon Gen Petraeus?

True...just stinks on both sides of the fence.  I am not a supporter of Trump or Hillary BUT I think that there has to be someone better out there than her.

He did not pardon.

He commuted the sentence... basically, time served.

He pardoned Gen Cartwright, to whom I was referring.

Are you talking about the Baghdad airstrike video? I've watched the video and read a few reports on it. It appears that the video doesn't show the broader picture of our ground troops being fired upon by rocket-propelled grenades before the apache got involved. They claimed that the journalists equipment looked like weapons on the small aerial camera that the pilots were viewing. The pilots *were* following the rules of engagement before shooting. It looks like a tragic accident to me, unless you feel there's a major cover up going on? I think it's easy for us as civilians to think they over reacted, but we weren't under fire all day which is what they are responding to and thus they have a bit of immunity when speaking about causalities. I don't think the attack on the rescue van was warranted but read an interesting explanation to that. Iraqis are supposed to know not to pick up the injured. Our military wants to keep battle scenes as is so they can document it but if an Iraqi comes by and cleans up, how are they Americans supposed to know he didn't pick up a weapon with him as well as a cover up? Then the Americans can no longer prove a battle scene was warranted. The risks are much higher for them verses us being armchair cautious. The soldier who carried the injured girl out the truck, who had nothing to do with the attack, posted an apology to her family online. While he was rescuing the girl, he was taking sniper fire from a roof. I haven't been able to find any action being taken against the pilots involved in this attack so it appears that the military investigated, under a heavy microscope, and cleared them of any wrong doing. Correct me if I'm wrong.

My issue with the release of this video is that it may have lead to the Arab Spring. This video being circulated around of course will make them more angry at us. Wikileaks presented the video to them one sided saying those people had no weapons, but apparently one person did.