Personally I am maintaining an open mind on the subject of the release of these documents. I can agree with some of the pro and anti group concerns. However, there are certain aspects of this drama that has irritated me. Some of them are:
- In my opinion the release of the Iraq and Afghanistan after action military reports has been reckless. Military analysts from any country can now use this information to generate a profile of how the US military responds to certain events on the battlefield. Things like tactics, committed troop strength, and other military assets used for particular situations.
- One of the first releases was a video of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq. The first version released was heavily edited and narrated to support a particular political position (anti-war/anti-US). The unedited version showed something entirely different because the attack was presented in context. The actions taken by the helicopter crews did not violate any rules of war. The only thing this video demonstrated was that people, combatants and non-combatants, get killed in war. And when one side of the conflict does not wear any identifying markers and routinely hides behind civilians as a matter of military doctrine it's not surprising when civilians are killed. That's not exactly a surprising revelation for most people with an IQ higher than 50. The anti-war crowd continually attack the US for killing civilians but they never say a thing about the insurgents killing nobody but civilians. In Israel,Afghanistan, and Iraq the native insurgents always concentrate their attacks on unarmed civilians. They hardly ever attack legitimate military targets because every time they do they get their asses handed to them so they go for the low hanging fruit without a word of protest from the vocal and increasingly annoying anti-war groups.
- The diplomatic cables released so far have not exposed anything important enough to get really upset about and most of these documents were not even classified very highly it they were classified at all.
- One of the most interesting things brought to light has been the fact that the US has been finding small WMD dumps in Iraq with evidence that Iran and terrorists might have raided for supplies. Their were no nukes found but most of the items found were for chemical and bio-war applications and are considered extremely dangerous.
- Another interesting fact was the number of middle-east countries who were privately urging the US to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities. Most of the comments released also showed that a lot of these countries had very harsh opinions of the Iranian government.
- The disclosure of the US aiding Yemen against terrorists while the Yemen government publicly stated they were NOT being assisted should not have happened. The fact that a small country with limited resources was actually trying to take the battle to the enemy while at the same time trying to shield their government against extremist backlash due to US involvement. It's unfortunate this information was released in this manner because it does nothing but make a difficult and dangerous situation even worse and benefits only the terrorists and their supporters.
- Some cable releases seemed to insinuat that the US was "spying" on UN members and making it seem that this "spying" is some how unique to the US government . Every country in the world, bar none, uses covert intelligence gathering everywhere. To single out the US for this type of activity is just another reason for me wanting to attack those who propagate BS like this.
- The most depressing point in this whole drama is that I have seen nothing disclosed that would be worth a 23 year old sacrificing the rest of his life for. Don't get me wrong. I believe the person who obtained and released this information should be punished according to the law, both military and civilian. Some of the information leaked could be considered traitorous and the penalties for this type of crime are sever and unyielding. I totally disagree with those who say this person should be considered heroic for spreading the "truth" to the masses. His supporters have raised the level of their heated rhetoric about this persons incarceration. His handling has followed the letter of the law since the beginning of the investigation. He has had his Article 32 hearing and is currently being held in pre-trial confinement. This happens every day in both the military and civilian legal system. He is allowed visitors and has had access to a lawyer since the investigation began. He is being held in solitary due to the nature of his crime which basically boils down to releasing classified information. If he had regular contact with others what makes anyone think he wouldn't continue releasing this confidential information verbally? He is also being monitored closely because of fears he may attempt to hurt himself and the government has to do everything it can to prevent this. If he was somehow able to kill himself in prison the government would be inundated with charges that they killed him just to silence the "truth".
- I guess we will have to see how the rest of this drama plays out over the next couple of years. The one thing I don't want to do is hear or see anything else about the ass hat named Julian Assange. This guy had one service to perform, namely releasing the data he was provided with and let everyone see the "truth" for themselves. Instead he has throttled and manipulated the release of the data and used the data to do nothing but attack the US government and anyone else who dares question his motives. Any claims of neutrality are long gone. I'm glad other similar operations also have the data so maybe JA can crawl back under the rock he crawled out from under.
- I imagine the US government will be reviewing their information security practices with the result being that more, not less, information will become classified and anything really incriminating or controversial will never be documented in the first place.
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