Chelsea Manning tells Trump: 'Stop letting troops be killed for nationalist fairy tales' in Veteran’s Day message
The military veteran urged authorities to stop playing political chess and highlighted the impact of war on civilians
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Your support makes all the difference.Ex-army analyst and veteran Chelsea Manning has targeted the Trump administration in a Veteran’s Day message.
The transgender veteran, 29, took aim at the US president and urged him to stop sending troops overseas in what she described as "fairy tale" manoeuvres.
Her comments seemingly refer to how military campaigns often overlook the effects of war on civilians.
Ms Manning has previously rejected the label "pacifist", which was given to her following the leaking of confidential military information in 2010.
Taking to Twitter, Ms Manning – formerly known as Bradley Manning – tweeted on Sunday: "Want to support veterans !? Stop sending us overseas to kill or be killed for your nationalist fairy tales. We can do better."
The tweet prompted a somewhat predictable backlash from conservatives in the US, with Twitter users accusing her of committing treason and claiming she does not have "the right to voice an opinion".
Manning published over 700,000 classified military documents via WikiLeaks in 2010 after serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.
She was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in prison for Aiding The Enemy and six violations of the Espionage Act, alongside numerous other charges.
Her prison sentence was commuted to the seven years she had already served by President Barack Obama in his final days of office.
Ms Manning was released from prison in May of this year after having her sentence cut by 28 years and has been documenting her return to civilian life on social media.
She filed a transgender rights case in prison which allowed her to transition while held at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas.
“I appreciate the wonderful support that I have received from so many people across the world over these past years,” Ms Manning told ABC News at the time.
Recently, Ms Manning was awarded a Harvard Visiting Fellow honour over the summer, but the university rescinded the invitation and she did not receive the title, although she was still allowed to talk at the education establishment.
“We invited Chelsea Manning to spend a day at the Kennedy School. On that basis, we also named Chelsea Manning a Visiting Fellow.
"We did not intend to honour her in any way or to endorse any of her words or deeds, as we do not honor or endorse any Fellow," said Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of the university's John F Kennedy School of Government.
Ms Manning has also been named "Newsmaker Of The Year" by Out100 magazine, a leading LGBTQ lifestyle magazine.
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