Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Μύ

Commentators consider the implications to future wars of the release of 400,000 classified US files about the Iraq war by whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

that if the Pentagon had had to disclose details of all casualties in Iraq in real time, the public could have judged 'progress' for itself:

"[S]houldn't the Pentagon have told us what they knew all along, instead of pretending that they didn't know and claiming that everything was going well? If, every day, they had had to tell the public what so many of us experienced of the true human cost of war, perhaps the violence would have ended sooner."

the bigger lesson is that it is no longer possible to prevent the release of information concerning illegal activities by soldiers:

"Throughout the democratic world, not to mention other forms of government, armies do anything they can to hide embarrassing information. This is done not infrequently by limiting media coverage of wartime activities, creating a conspiracy of silence among those involved, and issuing indictments in leak cases, even when that's unnecessary. In Israel, the military censor has sometimes been used for such purposes, even if there is no real certainty that state security could be harmed.
Μύ
"In the Internet age, efforts by the authorities that reflect the view that information belongs to those in power are doomed to fail."

The [registration required] that this leak signifies a new era of warfare where the public will have to face more of the ugly side of war:

"[G]overnments should realise that the information revolution which spawned Wikileaks is not about to be rolled back. Technology makes it ever harder to shield populations from the consequences of armed conflicts. If there was a time when the horrors could be hidden, it is over.
Μύ
"...Increasing transparency on the battlefield means that the public must be convinced both of the necessity for war, and of the cause being fought for, if the fight is to be sustained. The ebbing of support for Iraq was a consequence of the cavalier way that war was entered into.
Μύ
"Greater transparency may ultimately make it harder to go to war. But it means the public should be willing to endure the demands of wars they do accept."

The former chairman of the Government's Cobra Intelligence Group and head of international terrorism and Iraq for the Joint Intelligence Committee, Colonel [registration required] that the logs create a security risk:

"Careful analysis of some of the reports could very likely enable informants, who may still be vulnerable, to be identified. And recruitment and cultivation of human intelligence sources remains crucial to our operations against the Taleban in Afghanistan today. With a clear understanding of the savagery directed by insurgents against exposed informants in that country, the Wikileaks publications will give many potential informants second thoughts about forming an intelligence relationship with Isaf [the International Security Assistance Force].
Μύ
"The increasing culture of military leaks is taking us towards the point where operational security is becoming nearly impossible. It might be possible to attempt to justify the publication of the Iraq war logs if they had shone the spotlight on some monumental cover-up, revelation of which was in the public interest. But they did not. Like the Afghanistan leaks in July, they revealed little that was previously unknown."

that attacks on Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, are designed to divert attention from the findings:

"Bad boy Julian Assange, the pretty, blondish founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks was hugely admired when he uncovered oppressors and political chicanery in places like China and Kenya, but now he takes on Western duplicity and crimes. Can't have that. This spawn of Beelzebub, say our masters, a traitor whose insolence is a crime against the secretive states of the US and UK. Disregard the pique and dyspepsia of officialdom. It is a distraction, smoke from fires deliberately started to stop us seeing what lies before us."

Links in full

•
•
•
•
•