Was the “draconian sentence” delivered in Pfc. Manning’s case simply a matter of deterrence, asks John Cassidy at the New Yorker? “From the beginning, the Pentagon has treated Manning extremely harshly, holding him in solitary confinement for almost a year and then accusing him of aiding the enemy—a charge that carries the death penalty…It certainly looked like an instance of powerful institutions and powerful people punishing a lowly private for revealing things that they would rather have kept hidden.”