Maggie's Farm

As a retired Canadian Forces (CF) officer, I frankly view the gays-in-the-military question as a non-issue.

The CF has permitted gays to serve for some time now. I have served with officers I knew to be gay and led soldiers who were gay.

From my own experience, their homosexuality appeared to be utterly irrelevant in terms of their ability to perform their duties.

The only thing I can say to you folks is: end this silly distraction, let gays serve and get back to focussing on your nation's defence!

"Benedict Arnold committed his treason supposedly because of his nagging Tory wife."

Well, as a descendant of Loyalists and a Canadian subject of HM The Queen, I see old Benedict as someone who saw the error of his ways - all your founding fathers were traitors to the Crown! Ha ha!

Of course I jest; your founding fathers weren't traitors because, as the old saying goes, "treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason." The moment Great Britain recognized the independence of the US, any question of treasonous American colonists became entirely moot.

Incidentally, though Arnold became a brigadier general in the British Army and ultimately retired to live in London, it would seem that a whiff of unseemliness and opportunism dogged his steps right up to his death. Nobody really ever fully trusts someone who betrays their side - but to do it twice?

"Why was document access so lax that a PFC could get his hands on them?"

Manning wasn't just a PFC; he was an intelligence specialist by trade so he would have had higher clearances than your regular G.I. private soldier. In the course of his duties, he would have had routine access to classified systems.

The sad reality is that, no matter what elaborate security procedures you create, there simply is no way to fully mitigate the risk of compromise by a trusted, appropriately-cleared individual.

However, I do believe Manning had also been demoted at some point for misconduct - assaulting another soldier or some such thing. This suggests a leadership and vetting failure somewhere.

This sort of misconduct would not necessarily have been much of a career issue if Manning had been, say, an infantryman. But, as an intelligence analyst, any form of misconduct on his part would need to have been assessed much more thoroughly in terms of personal reliability.

By the way, the argument about gays in the US military is a complete red herring. In the final instance, it doesn't matter why Manning betrayed his country at all.

It only matters that he did.