Wikileaks - Friend or Foe?

I had to think about this one for a little while because I try to keep it all common sense. Although I'm sure Barack HUSSEIN Obama will somehow get blamed, that's a tough case to make. Somebody at Wikileaks did it without approval.

But can we really throw a blanket judgment over this? I don't think so.

But let's use my standard test - pretend a republican is in office. How would we respond to that? Would our outrage be the same? Assuming so, you'd be hard pressed to fault any administration except for someone's ability to compile these documents. I suppose the argument could be made that by expanding the size of the intelligence gathering institutions, the risks would rise with it. To be clear, that's not a "Bush did it!" backhanded attack - just an observation.

But let's talk content - should it be released? If it contains classified operational details, someone needs to go to jail. Anything that could give our enemies an advantage they would have otherwise not have had should be punished severely. Hang the bastards for all I care.

But if the material is classified because it hides damaging information that is not operational - basically, the horrors of war - I say this could be a good thing.

Do you know how many Americans have died because of political agendas? JFK and LBJ wanted to stop the expansion of communism because it would destroy our way of life. 50+ thousand Americans died to prove that theory wrong. Vietnam is back to being a resort like it was before USS Turner Joy fired missiles at it's own wake for two days in the Gulf of Tonkin. What if the facts of that event became public? Could the Vietnam War still have been prosecuted?

During the run-up to Iraq, if damning information was found that proved Dubya fixed the intelligence around his policy, would the Iraq war have been prosecuted?

My point is, intel is being classified for political purposes and we know it. And that's a bunch of crap. That is not the intent of classifying material. Maybe if Americans had the unvarnished truth, we would quit wasting lives and treasure for bullshit policies. And if there is evidence of war crimes as is being reported, that is even worse. The classification process is used as a tool to hide criminal activity.

Given all this and knowing our leaders would lie to us when telling the truth would be easier, I have to say - this is good. I don't care if it indicts the behavior of Bush, Clinton, or Obama policies. Nobody should have the power to subvert the Constitution by using intelligence agencies as cover.