Pentagon officials are, as always, struggling to find a common ground between downplaying the crimes revealed in nearly 400,000 new classified documents released yesterday by WikiLeaks while insisting that their revelation is a grave affront.
Pentagon At the same time, and with no attempt to explain the contradiction, officials are downplaying the release, insisting that they contain very little that wasn’t already public knowledge. Which of course isn’t true, because the formal order to keep Iraqi torture from being investigated was not public knowledge, and already the documents revealed some 15,000 civilian deaths that had previously gone totally unreported.
The official Pentagon “warning” to media outlets not to cover the leak appears to have been partially successful with respect to major US media outlets, as the major US source, the New York Times, released a paltry amount of coverage on the content, spun mainly favorably to the military and centered mainly around generating hostility toward Iran. Those seeking more in depth coverage of the leak from an English-language outlet had to look to The Guardian, a British paper, and Germany’s Der Spiegel.
The military should look at how they put men and women in harms way before categorically asserting that double agents do so by releasing war logs. Who is doing a better job of keeping secrets? The Defense Department or Wikileaks? If everyone knows what is really going on, then it is not a secret as to who is the more credible authority. When the military, private contractors, and foreign soldiers kill civilians indiscriminately and disproportionately to enemies, then the result is a direct harm to the American citizenry and its economy. When it's all said and done-we are a lot further away from the end than we were from the beginning-the actual number of enemies killed is and will continue to be a small percentage compared to the overall number of civilians killed. The Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan wars have been long lost on America, its allies, and probably every other country that has an opinion on the matter. To continue funding them is the epitome of greed. We know these wars will end the same way as Vietnam.
End the same way as Vietnam? You mean the empire will skulk home- admitting no wrong- prosecute no one for anything- hold no one accountable- examine nothing- and then make endless H-wood movies and TeeVee shows that purport to show how America was the victim of Iraq and Afghanistan and lionize and hero-ize the vets of that war? Maybe in 20 years a fighter pilot who dropped bombs on kids in Iraq will run for President and no one will say boo about that either?
I would hope it doesn't end the same way as Vietnam because we learned NOTHING from that war as is obvious.
And the Clowns at the New York Times still have no idea that every time they downplay what's really happening, they further reduce their value and shorten their lifespan.
aka American Pravda
Considering that the reason one of the soon to be "troops" in my neighborhood gave to his friends for his enlisting in the marines was because he was "bored" and wanted "some adventure in his life" I don't feel particularly obligated to be concerned about the welfare of troops who ask no questions about the rightness of a cause that may have them kill people on the other side of the globe and certainly not for one who is enlisting because he is quote "bored".
Anyone who thinks the US has spent trillions of dollars hunting for a handful of terrorists is insane. Period.
These wars are evil. Anyone who doesn't question them at this point is disgusting. And I have lost all patience for those hiding behind the sacred holy anointed "troops". Nope- not buying that line of swill anymore.
Hey, yeah….It's not them [wikileaks] that support the troops, it's the taxpayers!! More than half, up to 60 % of America's Fed tax goes to support the troops… All wiki is doing is releasing the reports the occupation army has written as inter-organization memos.. Funny, that the Pentagon would complain about their own work going under the light of day.. Maybe here? http://bit.ly/cwEYNc
WikiLeaks, by publishing the truth about America's wars, is doing the world a great favor. America needs to be exposed for what it is: an imperial nation that uses war as a pretext for achieving global domination.
Good on you Jullian. Release the truth. It may set the American people free if they ever get to see it, that is!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
Aside from the fact that the troops that should be "supported" are aggressors and occupiers, Wikileaks has no obligation to "support the troops". It is not an American organization.
No human being has nor will ever support the Nazi scum no matter where they originate from or what tribe they belong to, INMHO.
It is evidently NOT the mostly anonymous troops, but the LEADERS that might be harmed by such revelations. So in addition to be liars, they are now also revealed as being cowards, adding new lies and obfucations to cover up for the old ones.
Since this is EVIDENT and it is NECESSARY to change that (e.g. by the enormous misallocation of ressources to those "theaters") let's see some proof of the Americans sincere and honest belief in the power of democracy in the upcoming elections.
The very gravest disservice to American troops is to send them to die for nothing in Iraq and Afghanistan!
Supporting the troops is code for supporting two miserable wars of choice that should NEVER have been started. 150,000 troops trying to engage a few hundred terrorists, insurgents, jihadists is absolutely ridiculous, not to mention an unbearable expense on the American citizen. “Supporting the troops” is BS rhetoric by the politicians and the Military/Industrial/Congressional complex. A small, elite force to capture or kill bin Laden and his generals would have been the ideal. Here we are 1o years later, a trillion dollars poorer (and counting), with what, 6500 dead and 20,000 + injured? Many of us knew this would not end well.
We've had calls to audit the Federal Reserve but my oh my wouldn't it make as much or more sense to audit the Pentagon? Hot damn! That would be the day. And you'll see them squeal like kosher pigs from here to doomsday about it.
I must say the bald-face lying mouth pieces and their task masters really take the cake. That the revelations do a "disservice" to the troops is yet another squeeze at making lemonade of their lies.
When Hitler opened the European Theater of WW2, he claimed self-defense as the reason for his invasion of Poland. One can imagine the similarity between Wermacht and Pentagon press releases and PR people. Perhaps with the relevation of these logs, countries will stop financing the US Empire's wars and economy through purchases of US Treasury bonds and the utilization of the dollar in global trade. For example, the recent Saudi agreement to purchase Billions of dollars worth of weaponry is an example of how petrodollars get recycled, which supports the US War Machine. The Saudis could hasten peace if they stopped such recycling. Likewise, Pakistan ought to refuse the US offer of further military "aid" and threat the US Empire as the enemy it is.
As destructive as Hiterian Germany was, the US Empire is far worse and richly deserves the fate of Hitlerian Germany, particularly the partitioning and forcing of the populace to admit their complicity in mass murder on a global scale over two generations. It's too bad that whatever hit the Pentagon in 2001 didn't blow it to smithereens.