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He can't deliver himself to a courtroom because he knows he would be found guilty. Just like bradley manning he clearly and obviously broke the law and has no r
by Joeri 13y ago
He can't deliver himself to a courtroom because he knows he would be found guilty. Just like bradley manning he clearly and obviously broke the law and has no recourse but to plead guilty and get sent to jail (or to his death, but they wouldn't do that as it would make a martyr out of him). The issue is not whether he would be convicted, because surely he would be, it's whether the laws are just to begin with.
OK, maybe he could have gone to prison "nelson mandela"-style to be a symbol of a movement, but I don't think it's an act of cowardice if you don't quite live up to that ideal. There is a huge gap between being a hero and being a coward. In Snowden's own words he is neither (just by revealing what he revealed he has already imprisoned himself to a degree).
- h4pless 13y agoHey thanks for replying, I agree that he would easily be found guilty of the charges if he were to present himself to a courtroom. But what I was trying to suggest was that if he admitted himself to the court system, and was found guilty, there is a much larger chance that there would be a lot more question as to whether or not the law was just (not to mention that if he stayed in country, espionage charges would make a lot less sense). By running, he invites the comparison to being a spy. It will be a major talking point in the news to come. And it's generally unsafe. If he is still alive and well, he opens himself up to a lot of mortal vulnerability by travelling. I wasn't trying to say that he wasn't a hero. In fact I think him one of sorts. I was just trying to say that he wasn't a patriot. A patriot does not fight against his country from a foreign country or abandon his land. I just believe that there is a major difference between being a patriot and being a national hero.