No One Should Take the Democrats Seriously About Russia Now

By Erick Erickson With President Obama castrating commuting Bradley Mannings prison sentence and pardoning General James Cartwright no one should take him or any of the Democrats seriously about Russias involvement in our Presidential election. Their outrage and complaints are clearly motivatived by partisan butt hurt and not by any concern for our national security or democracy. Though James Cartwright gets little attention it was Cartwright who leaked the existence of the Stuxnet virus that along with the Israelis we used to temporarily incapacitate the Iranian nuclear program. Cartwrights leak had the effect of undermining both our and Israels national security and made it more difficult for us to be able to use such cyber attacks in the future. Likewise it more likely than not emboldened foreign governments interested in doing the same to us. I am not surprised that Barack Obama would pardon a man who hurt Israels national security. Bradley Manning too directly sought to cripple our national security. His advocates claim that Manning was just a whistle blower but saying so is revisionist history. Manning leaked critical intelligence to Wikileaks that included names of people helping the United States and other valuable national security data. His actions put the lives of our soldiers sailors airmen and Marines in jeopardy. His actions may have actually cost lives of those who tried to help us against terrorists. We know for certain Mannings trial Osama Bin Laden himself had requested a collection of documents for review that were on Wikileaks website. Those documents had been leaked by Manning. While Bradley Manning has generated sympathy in our identity politics filled world by declaring himself Chelsea" and seeking taxpayer funded sex reassignment he is a traitor who aided and abetted our enemies. That the Democrats are outraged at Russia trying to disrupt our elections but are cheering on Bradley Manning is another example of how unserious they are. To be upset with Russia but treat Manning a hero is hypocrisy at its finest. It is worth noting that Manning helped put Wikileaks on the map and Wikileaks would not have had the stature in 2016 to credibly leak DNC emails had Bradley Manning not first helped Wikileaks. Likewise it goes without saying that those Republicans who have cheered on Wikileaks for revealing DNC emails but are upset with Obama pardoning Bradley Manning should rethink their kind words toward Wikileaks. Finally we should offer up a small bit of sympathy for both Edward Snowden and Beau Bergdahl who are both no doubt considering whether a castration in the next twenty-four hours might aid their pardon efforts. I think it is a fair statement to say that if Bradley Manning had not been a mentally disturbed gay man trying to become a woman he would not be seen as sympathetically by the American left.