“They released this to show how evil America is.”
I think the publishers acted like publishers always tend to act: if they think it’s a good story, they publish it That’s their business. As far as showing that America is evil, from what I read, the material tends to show that the war is very difficult to win because of the corruption of the Afghan government. For instance,:
““The people of Afghanistan keep loosing their trust in the government because of the high amount of corrupted government officials,” the report quoted them as saying. “The general view of the Afghans is that the current government is worst than the Taliban.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26warlogs.html?_r=1
The question that comes to my mind in reading through about a half hour of these reports is why were these classified “top secret” in the first place. Well, maybe there was a reason at one time, but it’s hard to see how it hurts our cause now to publish these reports. I see that names have been changed where it might be important. Getting the American public information about the wars it is fighting is an important service of a free press. The government is always trying to restrict the information available to the American public—they don’t want us to see their blunders. That’s why we have the First Amendment.
Thank You for the first intelligent post in this thread.
“The question that comes to my mind in reading through about a half hour of these reports is why were these classified “top secret” in the first place.”
Because the information in them can cause grave damage to the United States. You and I don’t need to read them. Our enemies certainly want to.
I don’t rely on the NYT to make a decision on whats good for freedom or America. I know what side they are on.
“The government is always trying to restrict the information available to the American public—they don’t want us to see their blunders. That’s why we have the First Amendment.”
They don’t want our enemies to see our blunders. How many more men and women will be killed because of this?
First, much of the information probably is, at best, confidential, and of no continuing military value, but the whole composit of data compiled into an intelligence estimate gets marked at the highest classification of the whole document.
I also have a problem with all the folks on here. It is one thing to publish an article revealing present strategy or upcoming military operations or tactical assessments.
It is quite another to publish information showing conclusively that we are on the wrong track, and that their might not be a right track. We have the right to hold our government accountable to fight just wars in a manner that leads to a desired outcome. It is our blood and treasure.