Bush lied in his memoir.  I don't have a lot of time right now, but I don't think he actually talked to the Department of Justice.  John Yoo, Bush's top torture lawyer, couldn't even define torture for the House special committee.  When representatives asked Yoo if the president had the right to torture a person, or execute a child, or bury someone alive, or threaten to rape a terrorist's children, or execute an entire town, Yoo alternated between saying "I do not know where the line is" and "Now you're just playing games, representatives".  Pathetic.  And for Bush to claim that Yoo and his ilk prevented terrorism and saved American lives.  Bush ordered the CIA to destroy the tapes and transcripts of interrogations.  Any truth in Bush's claims is lost forever.   And can I just ask, when did Sarah Palin buy Alaska?  I mean, it's hers, right?  Or maybe she's just playing her little personal politics game, where she tries to hide the fact that she has no values, morals, or beliefs by personalizing concepts like Family, God and Country, making herself into nothing more than...  I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore.  I just can't talk about that skank bitch for another second.  From this moment on, that reality-show succubus is banned from this blog forever.  I won't go back on this promise.  She thinks Bradley Manning should be tried for treason.  Fuck her.  She should understand what it's like to live a lie, constantly faking a personality while fighting an overwhelming need for love and attention.  At least Manning had an excuse.  The more I learn about Bradley Manning, the worse I feel for him.  He was just an isolated gay hacker, pushed into the military to survive in this fucked empire of ours.  He was worn down and demoralized by years of reading an endless stream of intelligence, slowly pushed to accept the painful knowledge that the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are illogical, unnecessary and illegal.  Do you know what 9/11 was?  Allow me to quote myself:

9/11 was essentially blowback for 50 years of covert violence, destruction, and economic assassination of the Middle East by the Western nations.  The most obvious evidence of this claim is Operation Cyclone, an attempt to arm Afghan Mujahideen to fight the Russians under Carter and Reagan.  Many currrent "players" on both sides of the conflict were trained in US camps between 1970 and 1980, including the Karzai brothers and Ayman al-Zawahiri.  However, the need to remove US bases from Saudi holy lands and secure an oil pipeline into the former Soviet Republics were equally pressing concerns for the Bush administration.  The 9/11 Commission Report claimed that the funders and nationality of the attacks were both irrelevent facts.  I disagree.  The hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals and the Bush administration did admit the money came directly from the Pakistani ISI through the United Arab Emirates.  Iraq had absolutely no involvement in the attacks.  The connection to Afghanistan is similarly suspect.  The FBI can only concretely link one of the hijackers to Afghanistan, Bin Laden and the Taliban.  Before her death, Benazir Bhutto claimed the man who wired the money from the Pakistani ISI to Mohammed Atta, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, personally killed Osama bin Laden after 9/11. Maybe that's why we let the Bin Laden family build all our military bases in Iraq, as blood money for the son we had to clean up after.

So there it is.  Like XXXXX, Manning just wanted a little love and attention.  I think he was suicidal.  I don't think he understood or cared about the consequences of his actions.  Now he's facing 54 years in a military prison.  Given his mental state, the court should show significant leniency in his sentencing.  The American people should know what their wars look like.  How else will they know who the enemies are?  Whatever.  Bush lies.  Banks steal.  Obama treads water.  Bill out.