The problem with the Manning situation is that what he is alleged to have done is arguably treasonous but it wasn't necessarily motivated by the same desires, nor did it have the same consequences. The government has no choice but to nail him to the wall, to send a message to other employees to not violate their confidentiality agreements. But you look at who he actually is and what the real world consequences have been as a result of his actions and its hard to reach the tenor of those shouting for his death. There is no good answer to this problem.

I don't actually think he is being mistreated in prison. I think prison sucks, and they are genuinely afraid that either he will kill himself or one of the other prisoners will kill him (I imagine that most of his cellmates think him a traitor). In that event the exact same people who are screeching about his treatment will be screeching about their failure to protect him.

The drama is really about frustration over the fact that the government has to throw the book at him. The fact that laws meant for enemy spies don't really fit this situation exactly. This isn't exactly the same sort of situation, and the legal system hasn't really contemplated this. What sort of consequence is demanded here? I can't think of a way to balance the reality of the situation with the need to effectively deter others from doing the same thing.

Nevertheless it must be understood that every card carrying liberal in this country would be up in arms about Manning if this whole thing had gone down 6 years ago. Failure to see that is a sort of blindness I have trouble comprehending. He is against "their" war. He blew the whistle. He is being mistreated in "their" prisons. Its the invasion of Iraq and Abu Ghraib all wrapped up into a bow and the left are keeping their mouths shut about it, as well as Obama's detention policies, and his surveillance policies, etc...

The fact is that most of these people care more for their partisan allegiances than for their own internal sense of right and wrong. Their ability to follow the crowd is far more developed than their ability to decide what they think.