MISFIRE: Harvard is wrong to honor Chelsea Manning

By

Military Times Editorial Staff

(FILES): These two file photos show US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning (L) leaving a military court facility on July 30, 2013 in Fort Meade, Maryland, where he was convicted of espionage for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks; and at right in an undated photo courtesy of the US Army showing Bradley Manning in wig and make-up. Chelsea Manning, the US soldier serving a 35-year prison sentence for the biggest document leak in US, has a new job: writing unpaid for The Guardian newspaper’s American edition. A former Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was convicted in 2013 of having handed 700,000 classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. “Delighted to announce: Chelsea Manning joins @GuardianUS as a contributing opinion writer, writing on war, gender, freedom of information,” Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of the British newspaper’s US edition, wrote on Twitter on February 10, 2015. AFP PHOTO / Files / Saul LOEB (L) US ARMY (R) == PHOTO AT RIGHT IS RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: “AFP PHOTO / US ARMY” / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==DSK/AFP/Getty Images ORG XMIT: Chelsea M ORIG FILE ID: 537640890

Put your feelings about the transgender debate aside, and consider this fact: Chelsea Manning was convicted for leaking classified documents. She spent years in prison (until Obama commuted her sentence) and she is considered by many, many Americans to be a traitor.

So why has Harvard University chosen to honor Manning by naming her a visiting fellow for the John F. Kennedy Center? Harvard officials say Manning will provide perspective on issues of LGBTQ identity in the military.

OK, so why not consider an actual service member who isn’t a noted traitor. Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland immediately comes to mind. Or former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck, the subject of the documentary “Lady Valor.” Anybody who hasn’t committed military crimes, mmmkay? 

Harvard, who also tapped Sean Spicer for this visiting fellow gig, seems to care more about eye-catching names and less about real debate.