Image via WikipediaThe papers, which mostly covers the George W. Bush administration, tell us little we didn't already know about the war except for the part where the supposedly friendly government of Pakistan lent their support to the Taliban and its army.
The White House and the Pentagon both claim that the leaked papers would result in endangering the lives of Afghan and American soldiers. But otherwise, they act as if it's no big deal.
Not much is known about WikiLeaks other than it seems to exist only online. They claim that they do not know who leaked the documents. But an Army private has been turned in to military authorities and charged with leaking the materials to WikiLeaks.
Some media organizations, such as ABC News, are blurring the names of informants that were mentioned in the formerly secret papers. Not that we care, but since Al Qaeda and the Taliban may have already seen the names posted online, why is the media being so paternalistic towards their audience?
A drawdown of American forces from Afghanistan is scheduled to begin in July 2011. But as time goes along in America's longest war and the body count keeps rising (last month was the bloodiest), you wonder if the White House is serious about following through on withdrawal.
As the efforts to contain terrorism become more of an intelligence and law enforcement problem, President Obama should understand that when something isn't working, it's not a good idea to send more troops and more firepower into a situaton that creates more problems than it solves.
This episode should also serve as a warning to us all that no secret is safe in this brave new world of the Internet. Those who believe that releasing classified documents is a matter of serving the public really ought to consider whether it should have been done in the first place, not just because it can.
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