Posted on 12/06/2010 11:06:37 AM PST by Brookhaven
I'll admit to having mixed feelings about Wikileaks.
On the one hand, I abhor the release of classified material that might put our country in danger.
On the other hand, I'm starting to wonder why much of this was classified to begin with.
(1) My gut tells me 95% of this stuff was known to everyone execpt the general public anyway. China thinks N. Korea is a spoiled child; Arab countries in the Middle East think Iran is the real threat--not Israel; is there any intellegence service in the world that was unaware of these facts? But revealing this kind of stuff to the general public would make a huge difference in how the public views the administration's approach to these problems (which seems to be appease N. Korea and blame Israel).
(2) I'm wondering is much of this stuff should have even been classified to begin with. I noticed an article about "climage change (global warming)" information that was contained in Wikileaks. Why would there be classfied global warming info?
The more info that comes out, the more conflicted I am about whether this is a good or bad thing.
Good.
Bad.
U.S. military and diplomatic secrets, bad.
Bad if it is used to take away more of our freedom or create unrest.
It is a fascinating civics lesson on HOW things are actually done at the top.... And a scary one at that.
I don’t like the info that is leaked that puts our soldiers at risk though, but I do like to the politicians squirm like the worms they are.
Bad, because it tells foreign governments what WE are thinking about them. Now if all cables from EVERY government were leaked, might be different.
“Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.”
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/05/wikileaks-ready-release-massive-insurance-file-shut/#dsq-new-post
So, he is threatening to continue doing what he is doing, unless he is ALLOWED to continue what he is doing? Talk about a circular threat...
I personally think this is needed to right our society.
The world already thinks our government and elected officials are imperialist thugs and I must agree.
This is cleansing the soul of America. We already knew that corruption and backbiting was going on in government but this tells all.
Obama has degraded us with every chance he has gotten.
I am tired of supporting those who represent economic freedom on the surface but demoralize it in private.
I hate those who use capitalism to rise to the ranks and then deny it to others.
We'll have a clean slate to start over when 2012 comes and rebuild our trust with the world.
Mixed.
Bad, in that the information leaked is now available to almost everyone, including our enemies.
Good, in that if bastardly things are being done, it can’t / won’t be hidden forever.
Something along those lines, anyway.
I have yet to see any information released that has not been available in the newspapers over the past couple of years.
Granted, not in most American newspapers, but that’s hardly a shock.
Sunlight is a disinfectant.
Im not sure about the whole "we" thing... This is what the marxist F'ers in the fedgov and the state department are thinking. F 'em... I don't see this as an entirely bad thing.. There is potentially a lot here that can be used by us to assist in destroying our enemies. Namely the F'ing socialists in our country.
As I recall, the last president has said it’s a bad thing...and he would have been in a position to know.
Anything that takes down Hillary and Obama in the same event has to be helpful. And frankly, the Federal government should be completely disassembled now anyway and rebuilt from scratch to be in harmony with the Constitution, so any step in that direction is good.
I know, it's sort of like blowing up the house where the bad guys are hiding out, but sometimes, you just gotta blow up that house.
This is not about the content of what was released, it is about what this does to the greatest power the United States has: diplomacy.
U.S. Diplomacy has been the biggest stick we have, even more than our military, in the last 100 years.
Our diplomatic corps takes in tons of classified information, analyzes it and makes decisions based on it.
Now, we will have no classified information coming in.
Imagine is Achmed, an Embassy worker for Yemen, finds news that Mohammed will be trying to plant a bomb to kill German tourists in Egypt.
Normally Achmed would contact the American Ambassador in Yemen, who would quickly call his colleague in Egypt who would notify the Egyptian government.
This would leave Achmed safe, the U.S. with a good contact, the Egyptian government with U.S. resources, a bunch of unknowing German tourists and very frustrated terrorists.
Now if Achmed gets this information, what will he do? He won't tell the U.S. Ambassador, their conversation might be published to the internet. If that were to happen, Achmed and his family would be in great danger.
So what will Achmed do? He will keep the info to himself, not trusting that he would be kept safe by sending it on.
What would happen? You would have a bunch of dead Germans, a furious Germany, a very embarrassed Egypt, and an impotent United States.
We have lost the confidence of the Diplomatic world that they can speak honestly and openly with our Diplomats. That loss of trust will costs many, many lives in the future.
Good..
What military leaks? Seems to me our politicians got caught lying, and now they are embarrassed. What do they do?? They hide behind our troops because they most love our troops. Now when you examine the leak. I don’t see anything that gives away our troops positions, etc... All I see is confirmation of what most of us thought. For instance, Saudi Arabia funding terrorist. After all 17 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi’s. No surprise there.
The government is embarrassed and pissed off.
They (meaning the government/politicians) hide behind our troops because most people love our troops.
Another problem I have is, who at wikileaks vettes the information? What checks and balances are now in place not to distribute false information planted as fact?
It’s crazy, it’s just crazy.
Admittedly, some of it makes me laugh, some of it makes me want those responsible to be justly executed.
I do look forward to more UFO revelations. ;>)
Overhyped and overrated. Most of the documents released was lower level stuff and most of it was already known.Having said that, I do believe Assange should meet an unhappy ending and Manning should be jailed for life.
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