[Devongone]

When a state acts in a malign way we seem to rely on the extraordinarily brave, the very foolish and the troubled to step forward and risk everything. Chelsea Manning might well fall into all three categories. Her sentence like much of the USA's justice system was malicious. Only by being black could she have fared worse. Her treatment prior to trial was absolutely unforgiveable and her sentence should have been commuted on those grounds alone.

Obama is basically a good man. BUT releasing Chelsea Manning is no more than a sop to his own conscience and that of like-minded liberals; a guttering candle in the heart of a darkness he's left unpenetrated in a penal, gun-toting society. Waterboarding wasn't an aberration; keeping Chelsea Manning naked in a bare call for weeks on end without sleep wasn't an aberration. Guantanamo Bay and mining Nicaragua's harbours weren't aberrations, these things become permissible when good people acquiesce.

I've loved every visit I've made to America, but a country in which thousands have already died this year in gun violence, yes that many, has huge issues to address, and it shouldn't have to rely on some fragile bird of a boy passing on information he couldn't possibly encompass to point out that there are other roads to tread. It won't tread them under Trump so I'm sure Obama was also providing a middle-finger.