That’s because like most of us on here… you’re not the one who will be harmed by this because you — like me — are not risking squat for your freedom. We sit here and masturbate to unicorns and useless information.

I’m trying to understand who will be harmed by the leak of this information beyond the U.S. Government for perpetuating this lie of a war. A war the U.S. is losing and won’t end any time soon.

You know what? Just pull out of this mess. It’s 10 years already in the Mid-East and the only lasting legacy is nonsense and now even giving Israel an excuse to act with impunity against “terrorism.”

If this is the catalyst that will end this mess, more power to Wikileaks.

Adrian Lamo though. Christ, what an asshole.

The US emphasis appears to be on the reports which state Pakistan is treachorously working with the Taliban – those seem to be the ones getting the most US media play.

That’s a meme that’s been floated before, eh?
“Those rotten muslims…”
Who benefits?

Timeline of Competition between Unocal and Bridas for the Afghanistan Pipeline:
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipeline_timeline.htm

Dec 1998: Citing low oil prices, concerns over Osama bin Laden, and pressure from women’s groups, Unocal withdraws from Afghan pipeline consortium. Unocal also announces a 40 percent drop in capital spending for 1999 because of low oil prices.

Since so many here appear to be lefties try reading this:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_CIA_Taliban.html

“Since the collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991, U.S. oil companies and their friends in the State Department have been salivating at the prospect of gaining access to the huge oil and natural gas reserves in the former Soviet republics bordering the Caspian Sea and in Central Asia. These have been estimated as worth $4 trillion”.

Do you guys understand now? I get the US military to go in and secure the region without any cost to myself. In fact I profit from the arms sales. Once the region is pacified I profit more from the oil in the region and I get someone else to shoulder the bulk of the costs.

So be it. If the facts are damaging to the US, then it’s up to the US to keep the facts more palatable. In an era when facts can travel far and wide, and when in response governments attempt to hide them, it is good that the facts find a way around the damage. For well over 150 years, distance and manipulation kept the facts from US citizens while the government did things far from home (and in right in our own back yards) that they hoped we wouldn’t learn about. Our reputation and our people’s dignity are scarred by the sorry, incompetent results.

In my town, tens of thousands protested against the war in Iraq — a disaster there and here — and by extension against deep involvement in Afghanistan – where the Soviet Union too wasted 10 years and treasure. Around the world millions more protested against these actions. The wisdom of the people is once again vindicated by the facts.

“Some of us saw this war for what it was, before it started.”
What is it then?

Like most (if not all) wars, it’s mostly a way for weapon dealers and war profiteers to make bucketloads of money at taxpayers’ expense.
Have a look at Halliburton’s shares from pre-9/11 to now. Hint: they even did a 2:1 split.

Plus, it brought a number of political side-effects which I’m sure you’re well aware of.

I personally find these leaks distasteful and damaging to the United States and her citizens.

I personally find it much more distasteful and damaging that our government can spend billions every year on an unwinnable war and then lie to the public under the auspices of national security and tell us that “everything’s fine, we’re winning, no innocents are being killed — go back to sleep”.

Connections between Pakistan’s ISI and various terrorist, extremist and Taliban groups dates back to the 1970′s and are widely documented elsewhere.

The real question is why do we continue to be in bed with Pakistan when we know that they are supporting groups that have been killing Americans since before 9/11?

I’m 100% for transparency when it comes to what our government does in our name. Unfortunately these ‘leaks’ aren’t going to change anything except to have a few days if that of headlines and then it’ll get brushed under the carpet.

This is not Watergate. This is not the Vietnam War. This is not 1968. There is no draft. Our soldiers are all volunteers. All my friends in the military want to go fight. My best friend who survived Iraq wants to go to Afghanistan and fight. Anyone who joins the U.S. military knows that once they sign their name they will be deployed at some point to a war zone.

I just don’t see where this ‘classified’ information is telling us anything shockingly different than what we already know if we have been paying attention at an in-depth level.

Tonight let’s get our men and women home. These ‘leaks’ unfortunately will be a long jail sentence for some and a self-congratulatory pat on the back for others. One I see as a futile gesture and the other self-serving and self-promoting.

This is a farce.

There are no “rogue elements” in the ISI or the Army. As one very familiar with the workings of our military, it is pretty much impossible to go out and wage your private war. Anything and everything is always approved at multiple levels.

The ISI will only do what it is ordered to do. It is impossible for it to run it’s own show without approval at the highest level.

If the US is surprised at this, then they are living in some kind of Alice in Wonderland fantasy.

lol. woot.

god bless wikileaks. his shit needs to be known. obama recently said the truth was dangerous, because if they knew what we were really doing, then they’d REALLY want to kill us. (i’m american.) so yeah. wikileaks.

unrelated: my recaptcha.. is “be stillborn” by far the creepiest recaptcha i’ve ever gotten.

Wasn’t the whole “We’re in Europe; your silly US laws can’t touch us” the belief of The Pirate Bay folks as well? Things didn’t turn out so well for them in the end

Newsflash: TPB is still up and running.

They can go after the people who have been involved in running TPB or wikileaks, but they can’t stop TPB or wikileaks. The number of people who will carry on the fight is larger than the capacity of the jails.

Nothing short of an international police state would do it, and I’m not sure even that would be enough. Communication is now the norm, rather than the exception, and that is not going away.

I recall that not too long ago, the US pressured the government of Pakistan to at least look like they were making an effort to contain the Taliban in the tribal zone. The Taliban then threw a few TNT tantrums in some large Pakistan city or other.

I can see that Pakistan and the ISI’s interests don’t necessarily match the US and the CIA’s. But is it really in Pakistan’s interest to cultivate a pack of crazy fundamentalist rednecks or let your chief atomic scientist sell nukes out of the back of his car?

You think blowback only happens to Americans?

it’s like saying. i don’t want to know anything. i have total trust in my government. that’s a scary way to feel befitting life in a totalitarian regime.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10760780

Between these and the BoingBoing article, it sounds like the normal screw ups of war. Maybe less so*. Unpleasant, distasteful, but not as bad as I expected for 9 years of high explosive diplomacy.

In a way, the leaks appear to align close enough with public expectations that in the end, the leaks could increase trust of Washington and the military. Ironic, eh?

* war is pretty much filled with horrendous cluster $%@#s. Compared to what historically was encouraged (think Mai Lai as policy for every village) and swept under the rug, I’m quite proud of a military that at least tries (even if it often fails) to minimize the worst parts of war. And proud of a country that airs its dirty laundry (reluctantly) for the world to see.

How “secular” is that?
And IIRC, many many non-Muslims were driven out of Pakistan by violence: “ethnic cleansing” before that odious term was given wide use by the US media.
And this was only sixty years ago.

Boy, you Yanks can sure pick your Allies.

http://www.isaf.nato.int/en/article/press-releases/2.html

why are people surprised there is enemy contact every day in a war zone?

Attempts to reduce civilian casualties caused by US-led forces in Afghanistan have led to a decline in insurgent attacks in some areas…