Today, during the sentencing phase of his trial, Pfc. Bradley Manning stood before the military judge and, with his life on the line, apologized for his actions and pleaded for mercy.

He pleaded for mercy, this 5'2" junior analyst who blew the whistle on war crimes being committed by the United States.

He pleaded for mercy, after over three years in detention, much of that time spent in solitary confinement, stripped naked, enduring "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment."

He pleaded for mercy, knowing that decades were on the line, that the judge before him could decide 30 years, 60 years, 90 years ...

They say his words were heartbreaking to hear:



“I want to be a better person, to go to college to get a degree and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister, my sister’s family and my family,” he said. He shared that he wanted to be a “positive influence in their lives” just as his aunt, has been to him. “I know that I can and will be a better person,” Manning concluded. “I hope you can give me the opportunity to prove not through words but through conduct that I am a good person” and can “return to a productive place in society.”

Today, Bradley Manning apologized to the United States for those people his actions hurt, for the country his actions hurt.

But the truth is this: nobody was harmed by Manning's disclosures.

Today, Manning pleaded for mercy and apologized before his military judge at Fort Meade, understanding that his life is on the line, is in her hands.

However, it is the Obama administration that should be apologizing. It is our corporate media – which largely ignored Manning's trial and plight – that should be apologizing. It is all of us, myself included, who should apologize for being too complacent while whistle-blower after whistle-blower has been pursued.

After Manning is sentenced, we'll all have plenty of time to apologize as he sits, tortured in prison.

We'll have decades.

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