Mike Huckabee considers those who leaked classified documents to Wikileaks traitors and calls for the death penalty for those found guilty of such a crime.
Do you think he’s running for President? Hmmm… maybe so.
He’s not alone in that assessment as former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton also called for the death penalty.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her former running mate Arizona Senator John McCain wonder how did a 22-year-old solider get access to such material and what is the Obama administration doing to neutralize Wikileaks? Yet Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is the sole suspect at the moment and he faces a court martial and up to 52 years in a military prison.
That doesn’t seem like it’s a suitable punishment to Governor Huckabee? One of our contributors here, David Shedlock, thinks it was appropriate to do so. He said making political hay by placing blame on the Obama administration is inappropriate, but calling for the execution of a 22-year-old PFC is, saying “it is a matter of principle, not politics.”
I agree the charges need to be taken seriously. I think spending 52 years in prison is a pretty serious consequence. Saying Huckabee isn’t doing this for political posturing is being extremely generous looking at his actual record as Governor in dealing with his state’s criminal justice system. One has to ask is this an attempt to deflect the heat that could come his way in 2012?
Maybe, maybe not… I’m not going to judge his intent as I can’t read his mind. A better question that both Huckabee and Bolton should ask is whether or not what PFC Manning did, if found guilty, worthy of the death penalty. They both cite that he committed treason. While that certainly is a possibility under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It also isn’t a required sentence as a court martial has the latitude to determine another sentence. Should all classified material be considered the same?
Tell you what, let’s let the court martial do it’s work. We should be concerned about the supervision that this young man was given and it should be addressed, but I don’t think we need to be as concerned about the sentence provided justice is served and steps are taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.