Wikileaks controversy

A man by the name of Julian Assange leaked top secret classified documents to the public. Many argue that this is the best thing to happen to the public because they are now informed of what is going on in dozens upon dozens of countries in the world. However, how can the leak of such classified information be good for our public safety? In my opinion this a HUGE risk to our national security. I think it is great that wikileaks is making governments more accountable for their actions. However, this is not the way to do it. Time Magazine dubbed Wikileaks as something that "could be as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." While that may be true I am still a skeptic. I really do not see how leaking all this information is going to help diplomatic relations with countries.

Many are calling Julian Assange a hero for exposing U.S. Diplomatic cables to the public. However, for me I believe he should be charged with a crime. I do not think he should just get away with this. I believe our government needs to be more accountable for their actions but I do not think this is the way to do it. Maybe if someone has a persuading argument, I'd feel otherwise about this but for now I really think this was an extremely wrong move on Assange's part.

The Wikileaks contain classified documents from the war in Iraq. There are over 390,000 documents on the war in Iraq. Everything from friendly fire to non-combat actions to counter-insurgency. I do not understand, honestly, why the government would have reports such as these. Even though I think its a threat to security, I also feel like the government should not have documented reports of what is going on in the middle of a war zone. The Wikileaks video, Collatoral Murder, is actually interesting...it exposes the truth about what happens in Iraq. The video shows how civilians were killed even though reports show that no civilians were killed. The entire 17 minutes of footage is them searching out people and shooting them down. Army personnel eventually arrived on the scene and said they didn't want to drive the tanks through because there were too many bodies on the ground. THAT IS APPALLING!! Totally Sad. The worse part is they found two children wounded and the military ordered them to be handed to Iraqi police and be taken to an Iraqi hospital rather than the U.S. base nearby where they could have received better treatment. I am all about supporting our troops. DO NOT misunderstand me when I say that it is absolutely appalling that our military did that. This is one of the reasons I am saying that Wikileaks is a bad idea. We should not know the inner secrets of what is going on on the ground in Iraq. It is going to undermine the efforts of our troops and is essentially putting them in more danger than they already are.

The war in Iraq was not the only thing exposed. The war in Afghanistan has been exposed as well. Furthermore, thousands of U.S. cables were leaked from nearly every country on the damn planet. What I want to know is how on earth Assange got a hold of so many of these documents and cables. Everything from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to Iranian nuclear programs to enriched uranium sales to Russia to underground parties in Saudi Arabia is exposed in these cables.

Ugh. Julian Assange, I do not like what you have done! I think the U.S. government in particular needs to be more responsible and accountable for their actions but I do not think it is up to this man to be the one to expose this information. In this age of technology, nothing is a secret. How can a government protect their boarders and their interests if any war document or cable to another country's government is going to be exposed?