I agree that governement and military transparency can, and should exist, within boundaries. Things like military positioning and strategies, that if leaked could endanger military lives, or the success of an operation should be kept secret. Our want to know should never come before that. However criminal acts being committed and being kept quiet is entirely a different matter. Just because the crime is happening in some of the highest offices of our country doesn't mean they should be tolerated.
I do agree that Manning knew what he was doing, and he had to have known it was a crime. I think what most of us speaking out against it had a problem with is that no one should be able to freely commit whatever crimes they want and get away with it. It undermines what America's supposed to stand for, the world's view of us when they find out, and the morals we're supposed to stand for. When those who lead us can do whatever the hell they want and cover it up, and then enforce punishment on anyone who dares leak it.
I guess I'm saying that my problem isn't with him being in trouble for leaking top secret documents as he had to have know it was against the law. My problem is that we even have documents that expose horrible crimes in our databases, nothing is done about them, and that attempting to make these crimes public is illegal in and of itself.
