My blog - LouiseSchmidt

stealing state secrets, and defecting to the enemy is now the norm I'm curious on your thoughts about Daniel Ellisberg. Had it not been for him we would have continued to be involved in Vietnam for much, much longer. Did disclosing state secrets become the norm? Of course not. That's like saying revolutions are the norm. Typically, these things happen far and few between. Manning probably soured your mind and you are carrying that distaste over to Snowden. As I said before, Manning was not a hero. He was an upset confused young man that wanted retaliation. That is not Snowden. You need to separate the two.
He did not try any one of these before going to the media. He went to a media outlet that he trusted.
Why did he skip all of these democratic steps and protections afforded to whistle blowers? Ever hear of Thomas Andrews Drake and William Benny)? Their experiences wouldn't be something that would seem ideal. Bogus charges, stressful FBI raids, loss of business and privacy. Not to mention that the "revealing wrong doing" phrase is subject to interpretation. Since what the NSA is doing is largely legal it's fair to assume that US prosecutors would have argued that he isn't eligible to be protected under the WPA.
And what have we learned from his leaks? You may not be surprised but millions of Americans are and that's what matters. Additionally, it's not just regular Joes that learned something. Multiple Congressional officials used the word "shocked" and "surprised" so claiming he didn't actually really reveal anything is quite bogus.
So while Snowden is living it up in mother Russia, the US is now worse off in a geopolitical sense That's not his fault. That's the fault of those that felt it was necessary to abuse the power the American people gave them.