WikiLeaks: Things about to get crazy….
That’s just one example from the 90,000 documents released on WikiLeaks.org a few days ago.
There is an argument to be had about national security threats and classified information. However, I can’t imagine how, if the above linked story is true, that it was classified information that the USA accidentally killed Canadians.
I mean…seriously…at what point does someone stand up and say “wait a second….this is just public relations spin for the military…it’s not national security.”
I am totally sympathetic to the notion that announcing deaths via friendly could damage the opinion about the military’s operations, but that doesn’t override our need to know as the citizens supporting the military’s operations with our tax dollars.
I’m not saying that because we help fund the war that we get to know every single little thing that happened. But in some cases, and maybe most cases, the conventional wisdom is to keep the public uninformed….and i think that is dangerous.
Maybe if the citizenry of the world knew exactly what was being done in their name, there would be fewer wars to start with.
Maybe if the teenagers and lower-income-class individuals knew what the reality of war was, instead of what they see in 3 second clips on the news once a week, they might not sign up in the typical huge numbers we’re used to.
Maybe if less people signed up for these wars under false pretenses, there wouldn’t be enough soldiers to wage the war moving forward.
or….
Maybe if people knew the truth about the wars, they would sign up in greater numbers.
Maybe they would support the war more.
…..but we can’t know that, because we’re kept in the dark about so much of it.
There is much discussion that needs to be had surrounding the effect leaked classified documents will have on the military, but unfortunately it’s already being politicized as an attack on President Bush, rather than an attack on the military industrial complex. Unfortunately, President Obama is not doing much different than Bush did, and that disappoints me greatly. It speaks volumes to the state of politics, not the state of the people. People elected him to change the direction of certain issues….health care, two wars, tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, and many other things…..we’re yet to see much of that come to fruition. I blame him for part of that failure, but i blame the climate of politics as well that create an atmosphere that makes it difficult to change anything, for fear of not winning another election.
Got off topic a little there.
Anyway….WikiLeaks is doing a great job in my opinion. Even more so, the founder of WikiLeaks impresses me with his take on classified information, real journalism, and our right as citizens to be informed.
Here’s an interview with him on TED:
