“You disgust me. You can hang right next to the New York Times and the traitor releasing this information.”
What if someone you knew worked in the Obama administration and he told you of a Top Secret (classified) plot on Obama’s part to seize the guns of the American people, and you knew the government would begin the crackdown at midnight the next day. Would you (a) immediately call the FBI and tell them that your friend was a traitor and then quietly go about your business or would you (b) notify as many people as you could?
Hopefully and truthfully, you would answer “(b)” because you realize that sometimes the people need to know regardless of the government’s desire to keep something secret. It is something that has to be weighed in every case. It is not easy, but it is a duty of a free press to make that judgment from time to time. It is too important a decision to leave solely to the discretion of a government bureaucrat.
And how did releasing classified documents about the war in Afghanistan and soldiers personal encounters help us? What good did it bring to our troops? What good did it bring to you? Who exactly did this benefit and how so?
You can play “what ifs” all day long and you still are disgusting.
These traitors released military secrets during a war and you are supporting them. Secrets that will most likely get people killed. The only question is how many.