Article

2011-05-28 Science & Technology

A 'mess of a child': Bradley Manning was so unfit to serve in Iraq that he wet himself

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Posted by tipper 2011-05-28 11:37|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 Two months after his arrival in Iraq the bolt was removed from Manning's rifle because he was deemed a danger.

A guy like that should never have been given access to secret documents.

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-05-28 11:56|| 2011-05-28 11:56|| Front Page Top

#2 ...I didn't know these details about Manning before, so I'm going to stick my neck out for a moment here.

I'm not going to fault Manning for getting rattled during a combat situation - nobody knows how they're going to react, and some folks just can't do it. Had Manning's CO then sat him down and said, "Son, you just aren't cut out for this - we're sending you home and cutting your papers for discharge", none of the nightmares that followed ever would have happened.
But let me suggest this sequence of events (and I think our vets will agree with me on this): They're in a combat zone, and you NEVER have enough people in a combat zone, even if you're 100% manned. Sending an otherwise able-bodied kid home simply because he got scared is a bad example to others, and quite frankly is going to reflect poorly on the CO, whose superiors are going to wonder how well he's motivating everybody else. So let's just keep Manning behind this desk, where he can't hurt anybody...

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2011-05-28 13:33|| 2011-05-28 13:33|| Front Page Top

#3 Yes, Mike that's the usual institutional response. We've unlearned a lesson from the rebuild of the Army after the nadir of the 70's. By the 80's those who'd worked on the rebuild figured out that its better to have 7 men in a 10 man squad who are motivated and a team than have 10 men with 3 problem children who eat up everyone's time and attention. Of course this is the 10's and those officers and NCOs are well retired and the bad habits of institutions creep back in.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-05-28 22:33|| 2011-05-28 22:33|| Front Page Top

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