Bradley Manning, traitor to some, hero to most, has finally been sentenced after three years of forced, illegal and torturous incarceration, and after much circlejerking by the American military. To summon, according to Alexa O'Brien:

“Manning is guilty of 20 offenses, including six violations of the Espionage Act; five offenses of stealing U.S. Government Property; and one violation the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This warrants Manning "up to 136 years in a military prison, dishonorable discharge; and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.”

For all the details, please read through Alexa’s website. She has done an ineffably terrific job covering this trial over the past weeks (without pay), and much thanks goes to her and her colleagues Kevin Gosztola and Nathan Fuller. All beasts and each deserving multiple Pulitzers and Peabodys for their efforts. There were others like Ed Pilkington, of course, but these three have stood out, in my opinion.

So, what do we, those who care, do about this whole situation? A young man who saw the inherent evil in war and its physical face manifested in the very same uniform he wore, will now rot and die prison. Likely under unimaginable conditions. For those who do not know, Manning has been tortured while awaiting trial, and the maltreatment he is about receive will never see a single news reel, simply because his story will find its media end in a couple of days when the court martial hands out the time to be done.

From my side of the border, I personally cannot do anything, except implore however many Americans I can reach with this post to use the White House page, We The People, and petition the government to add a nation-wide referendum pardoning Manning to the ballots of next year’s Midterm Elections. As far as I know this is the official site for citizen initiatives. If it makes the rounds in Congress, and given the Defund NSA tally of last week where the Yes’s lost by only 12 votes, this just may work out.

I do not mean to undermine other pardoning petitions in any way (here and here). I just believe that petitioning the White House for a pardon directly - that means the President - could be brushed off quite easily with: “Justice has spoken in a fair trial in a recognized court of law.” And the issue would be done and over with, until Obama maybe receives a letter by Manning himself in the last days of the presidency, asking for a pardon. That will never happen. Obama’s ego would never allow him to renege on one of his milestones in curtailing an essential freedom of Western civilization.

Petitioning for a referendum to be included on the 2014 ballots would not only show which Congressmen are with the people, but it would FORCE Obama to free Bradley Manning. In short, it would make it a lot harder for him and his administration to circumvent a pardon. If it fails, well, you all will have your answer that America is NOT a land where democracy, honesty, and freedom rule.

I will try to nag some Congressmen into supporting this. I would imagine Ron Wyden and John Conyers will get behind this, as well as Justin Amash. If these are YOUR representatives, help out and contact them. But for now, please ONE of you AMERICAN readers start a PETITION FOR A REFERENDUM ON 2014 MIDTERM BALLOTS TO PARDON BRADLEY MANNING. Use hashtags (#PardonManning, perhaps?), use Facebook, use Twitter. When you do start it let me know about it. We’ll go from there. Let’s get this man out!