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That’s the problem with security – who decides what is and is not a matter thereof? Yes, Lewinsky polishing Clinton’s knob is no matter of security and names and identities of CIA agents are. But, unfortunately, it is not always so clear – cut.
Knowledge is a weapon, true, but like any weapon, it can be used against us. Of course, government accountability is the paramount issue of the day, but looking at some of the recently leaked “classified” documents, the relevance to government transparency or transparency of any organization is nonexistent. Citizens of America have no need for knowing the nature of our equipment in Iraq beyond a certain extent of the number of people and a general understanding of the magnitude of the conflict. This knowledge can be used as a weapon against government corruption. However, it is irresponsible to report on the exact nature of our deployments. This knowledge is an even more powerful weapon, and its only target is our soldier’s lives.
Don’t take this as a political standpoint. All I am saying is that knowledge is necessary, but not when it puts people’s lives at risk.
I think moderation is in order on both sides of this debate.
First, I will say that secrecy is usually unsafe. Especially for governments like ours where the people are supposed to be ruling themselves. If we really are the bosses, how the heck are we supposed to make intelligent decisions when all of the information is kept from us? Sure, we elect people to do that, right? But these same people we elect pretty much get to decide what we know and what we don’t. It’s like sending a kid to school, and letting him write his own report card. The media is suppose to be doing this kind of thing folks.
Unfortunately, for the past 50 years they haven’t been doing their job. Most of the networks are consolodated and owned by a few powerful people who are easy for the government to passify. That’s why the constitution was written the way it was. The media’s job is to keep us informed so that we can make informed decisions when we go back to the voting booths. Sure, on occation they are annoying, but my gosh, why are they spending all of their time stocking movie stars? It’s because they aren’t stocking and digging where they should be. Way too much stuff is classified. In my view, it’s classified to keep the citizens in the dark, not our enemies. Politicians and military nuts (OK so I’m a veteran myself so no one take offense here) would rather not explain, even when they do something they KNOW is wrong.
Secondly, sure…there are times for secrecy. Usually though these kinds of secrets are strategic, and of very little concern to the world at large. Yeah, I don’t think we should be posting nuclear weapon locations, or military asset movements. That should be obvious – then you start getting into a Borne Identity Universe where government start to take down the journalists, and that’s just a bad place to be. If they have a brain they won’t be posting stuff like this anyway – even if they could.
Also, you have to keep in mind that the people leaking these documents are doing so at very high risk to themselves. Most of them will be prosecuted or worse depending on the country they come from. So,…my view is that most people are not going to take that kind of risk, unless some is going on that shouldn’t be. In my view…we need a forumn where things like Abu Gharib, fraud, government sponsored genocide, corruption and other things can be exposed. Sure if the government wants…they can prosecute. I don’t have a problem with that either. It keeps people who shouldn’t be posting stuff from posting stuff just to get attention.
But come on people, have you watched the news recently? How much do we really learn from a sixty second repeating campaigne commercial? To me, the news has certainly been bought off…and to me Wikileaks feels like a breath of fresh air. Hah…let those talking head compete with that. 🙂