I think that there is a fundamental flaw in the idea that the nazis were anything special in terms of human behaviour.
The psychologist Stanley Milgram did a very revealing test in the 1960s(?) in which volunteers were asked to inflict pain via a dial supposedly shocking a test subject(actually not harmed but merely moaning or screaming) inside a sealed booth.
A very high percentage (60-70% of the volunteers did as asked and a fair proportion of those actually turned the dial up to the red zone, labelled "lethal"without complaint. All because they were asked by a man in a white dust jacket holding a clipboard telling them it's OK.
There was another test by whom I do not know, that involved half the volunteers(all students) being prisoners and the other half becoming gaolers. The experiment had to be stopped after two days(it was designed to run for much longer)because everyone got into role so much it was considered dangerous to continue.The gaolers became brutal and the prisoners became passive, they were right into it in two days!!All because they were given permission to be that way.
The above were all americans, mostly educated middle class kids, who were no different to the way nazis are depicted as behaving.I find this very interesting as this behaviour is normally considered sociopathic yet real socio/psychopaths are a normally considered to be a quite small proportion of the population.
FWIW, I think that systems are probably more important than individuals in determining behaviour. Set up the system and people will self select to be in or out of it. For those that are in, and who may think that they will maintain their integrity regardless, will probably find that they will conform to group norms regardless of grand intentions. Think police force, politics etc
So in terms of Bradley Manning, everyone will just do their job and do what they are told as they can say to themselves that they were only following orders.That includes all the mistreatment he has suffered so far. Only problem is that the Nuremberg defence was declared invalid when the nazis tried it but back in the US it is alive and well.
