Posted by Rick at 9:59pm Jul 28 '10I'm mixed on this subject. I didn't even know about it till I saw John Stewart talking about it.
On one hand, military secrets are secret for a reason. If an enemy can use them against us, then you shouldn't be airing it out in public. This would be things like how to make and construct nuclear weapons, where we have military labs that work on this and other dangerous things (like bioweapon programs), even mundane things like troop movements and itineraries for military leaders and diplomats.
On the other hand, what exactly are these secrets? By some accounts its stuff we already know about. How is it a secret if we already know about it, more importantly why is it hurting us since it's not secret they already know about this stuff.
So according to clips Stewart were showing some people has gone through the documents. Obviously we haven't gone through them all, so maybe there is stuff in there that shouldn't be open to the general public.
Taliban using heat seeking missiles to shoot down aircraft...why is that a secret. Shouldn't that be something you want people going over their to know about? If you're expecting just assault weapons, it's a big fucking surprise when they dish out the heat seeking missile. Same thing with 2 particular mosques providing most of the suicide bombers. Now if we have spies looking at everyone going in and out of those mosques, then yes that should be secret until the war is over. You can still tell the public that you have leads on where the suicide bombers are coming in.
The Pakistan intelligence agency is funneling money and possibly manpower into Afghanistan.
So according to Stewart we already give millions or billions to Pakistan already. So in effect the US government is the biggest funders of terrorist. We give to Pakistan (as well as others) they give it to the Taliban...yeah that's not counterproductive at all.
Now some are saying we already knew that. Fine, maybe they just didn't have proof. However if these are real documents, the only thing that makes sense is to halt all financial support to Pakistan. Why are we giving money to them? I thought we were generally on India's side, and we know how Pakistan and India feel about each other. Maybe its that they have nukes and we don't need those guys dragging the world down with them...which seems odd since they want to nuke each other. But then it does make sense when you consider we work (supposedly) to make sure nukes don't spread since we have enough problems with these guys.
Still, what point is it to keep this information secret? The fact that the public might not support the war if they new this, doesn't make it right to keep it secret.
Whether we're a representive republic or democracy the general population deserves to be informed about this particular information. Why because they can't vote for a guy they believe to be the right man for the job without pertinent facts to the situation.
A well armed Taliban, Pakistan and other countries supporting the Taliban, those are all relevant facts that the public deserves to know. Why because then we can have a debate on what to do about it.
Do we say screw Afghanistan, and just team up with India and put down Pakistan once and for all. Last I heard their country was about in the same state as Mexico...in danger of failing. If Pakistan goes, nuclear weapons go onto the market. Why does someone like Iran then need to make them when they can just purchase them?
Well the only thing that becomes clear is that things are a mess.
Also on the same Stewart program, he showed some photos of Afghan security forces getting high. The photo looked like the guy was sticking a butter churning stick in his mouth. Some American soldiers were then complaining that it made them giggle...a bad thing if you're trying to be covert. So we're going to train and leave the defenses of a whole country to a bunch of hop-heads. Well I'm filled with confidence. What I am unsure of is if this was a separate incident, or if this was also included in the documents.
On one hand, military secrets are secret for a reason. If an enemy can use them against us, then you shouldn't be airing it out in public. This would be things like how to make and construct nuclear weapons, where we have military labs that work on this and other dangerous things (like bioweapon programs), even mundane things like troop movements and itineraries for military leaders and diplomats.
On the other hand, what exactly are these secrets? By some accounts its stuff we already know about. How is it a secret if we already know about it, more importantly why is it hurting us since it's not secret they already know about this stuff.
So according to clips Stewart were showing some people has gone through the documents. Obviously we haven't gone through them all, so maybe there is stuff in there that shouldn't be open to the general public.
Taliban using heat seeking missiles to shoot down aircraft...why is that a secret. Shouldn't that be something you want people going over their to know about? If you're expecting just assault weapons, it's a big fucking surprise when they dish out the heat seeking missile. Same thing with 2 particular mosques providing most of the suicide bombers. Now if we have spies looking at everyone going in and out of those mosques, then yes that should be secret until the war is over. You can still tell the public that you have leads on where the suicide bombers are coming in.
The Pakistan intelligence agency is funneling money and possibly manpower into Afghanistan.
So according to Stewart we already give millions or billions to Pakistan already. So in effect the US government is the biggest funders of terrorist. We give to Pakistan (as well as others) they give it to the Taliban...yeah that's not counterproductive at all.
Now some are saying we already knew that. Fine, maybe they just didn't have proof. However if these are real documents, the only thing that makes sense is to halt all financial support to Pakistan. Why are we giving money to them? I thought we were generally on India's side, and we know how Pakistan and India feel about each other. Maybe its that they have nukes and we don't need those guys dragging the world down with them...which seems odd since they want to nuke each other. But then it does make sense when you consider we work (supposedly) to make sure nukes don't spread since we have enough problems with these guys.
Still, what point is it to keep this information secret? The fact that the public might not support the war if they new this, doesn't make it right to keep it secret.
Whether we're a representive republic or democracy the general population deserves to be informed about this particular information. Why because they can't vote for a guy they believe to be the right man for the job without pertinent facts to the situation.
A well armed Taliban, Pakistan and other countries supporting the Taliban, those are all relevant facts that the public deserves to know. Why because then we can have a debate on what to do about it.
Do we say screw Afghanistan, and just team up with India and put down Pakistan once and for all. Last I heard their country was about in the same state as Mexico...in danger of failing. If Pakistan goes, nuclear weapons go onto the market. Why does someone like Iran then need to make them when they can just purchase them?
Well the only thing that becomes clear is that things are a mess.
Also on the same Stewart program, he showed some photos of Afghan security forces getting high. The photo looked like the guy was sticking a butter churning stick in his mouth. Some American soldiers were then complaining that it made them giggle...a bad thing if you're trying to be covert. So we're going to train and leave the defenses of a whole country to a bunch of hop-heads. Well I'm filled with confidence. What I am unsure of is if this was a separate incident, or if this was also included in the documents.
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