It is a sad testimony on the state of the world that the people being tried and punished in connection with crimes by the state are the ones who made those crimes public.

When Bradley Manning, a private in the US military who is currently standing court-martial in Maryland, committed the largest release of US classified documents the world had even seen, it brought to light the hypocrisy and double-standards that exist in governments around the world. It also triggered an Orwellian deluge of events that is continuing to have consequences today.

The documents Manning leaked have been called the catalyst that brought about the Arab Spring, as well as further souring American sentiment against its military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is unlikely that Manning could have foreseen these events, although in a statement he read aloud on June 1, he said he hoped the document would show “the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

However, what Manning should also have foreseen is the reaction of the US Military. American soldiers are subject to the US Code of Military Justice, a Constitutionally-authorised document created by Congress that gives the military far-reaching powers to maintain order and discipline. A harsh and retaliatory response against Manning for his action was all but a foregone conclusion for his betrayal of the trust he was given.

If Manning did foresee this, then he is as deserving of the world’s respect for his attempt to bring about justice as he is guilty of violating the laws that protect the government’s dirty little secrets.

But it is reprehensible that two years after Manning’s leaks, so much of what he revealed — the continued detention of prisoners at Guantanamo and the killing of Reuters journalists in Iraq in 2007 by a US Apache helicopter crew — have gone unpunished, unprosecuted and unresolved. It is a shame that the US government’s vitriol against Manning has not also been focused on injustices elsewhere.

It is a tragedy that revealing a crime has greater consequences than the crime itself.