US Air Force Intelligence Veteran Of Afghan War Explains Why He Supports Wikileaks

Say That Again

from the worth-reading dept

Mathew Ingram points us to this absolutely worth reading open letter from a US Air Force Intelligence official who served in Afghanistan, explaining why he supports Wikileaks. The whole thing is worth reading, but the key paragraphs:

After reading many of the Iraq/Afghan/Cablegate logs I am compelled to inform my fellow citizens that I saw nothing in these logs that could endanger our troops or public servants.

Here’s what I did see: I saw Iraq war logs that painted a very bleak picture of the situation there which doesn’t match up with the “improved security” that’s been reported by the “Defense” Department for years. I saw proof of public officials acting dishonestly and abusing their posts. Overall, I saw an out of control government that is in over its head and does more to endanger the lives of its people than any publishing organization ever could.

I volunteered to protect this country under the impression that my government followed the will of the American People and adhered to the US Constitution. As it turns out, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were never constitutionally declared and despite public opinion being against the two wars they continue to grow more destructive. My experiences in these wars differed greatly from the propaganda the American people were sold by America’s mainstream media outlets; many times I would return from a mission to see wild inaccuracies being reported on Fox/CNN/MSNBC about the very operation I had just been supporting. Wikileaks has helped shine light on the true nature of these illegal wars and the policymakers that perpetuate them, for this I am thankful.

This does a really nice job summarizing the points that many people have been trying to make. Not all of us are entirely comfortable with the way Wikileaks itself operates, but on the whole it, and others like it, are helping to expose questionable activities by our government — and I’m somewhat amazed at the number of people who respond to it by insisting that they’re happier having their government lie to them and mislead them. At the same time, it’s nice to see someone else confirm that there’s little in the documents that has “put people in danger” which is a key point often raised by those who want to pin something on Wikileaks. The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be much “there” there.

Filed Under: governments, secrecy, transparency, wikileaks
Companies: wikileaks