On July 25, 2010, the “Afghan War Diary,” comprised of more than 91,000 reports related to the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010, was released ---just two days before the US House was scheduled to vote on further funding for the war.
One hundred and fourteen congress members would vote “no” on allocating the 59 billion dollar sum for the war. But 308 voted “yes,” and the bill passed.
The war hawks can breathe a sigh of relief for now, having padded their coffers with US taxpayers’ money to continue to fund an illegal, misguided, bloody war in a sovereign country.
A trillion dollars has now been spent on the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, two wars that now span nearly a decade. While a vast majority of Americans not only oppose the war in Afghanistan, a vast majority (80%) believes that the United States is headed in the wrong direction—on many fronts.
But, according to the war hawks, the war is progressing and we are “in it,” as Sarah Palin said, “to win it.” The war hawks are now taking an apparently nonchalant attitude toward the leaked documents, arguing that they reveal “nothing new.”
They continue to hold fast to the hard line that the war is necessary; it is a means to protect freedom and democracy. Indeed, they remind us, we are fighting a ruthless, vicious enemy that would do us harm.
But the war hawks are now finding themselves engaged in a figurative war with another enemy: the source of the leaked documents, Wikileaks, and its founder, Julian Assange.
And so, they have launched a campaign of moral outrage against the “traitors.” The release of the war documents, they argue, could spur potential “loss of life;” the leaked documents could “endanger lives;” and according to Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the leaks could have “potentially dramatic and grievously harmful consequences” (New York Times, 7/29/10).
Ironically, the war hawks now publicly utter concern over “loss of life.” Suddenly, the source of the leaked documents becomes a dangerous enemy force. Hypocritically, the war hawks portray outrage over injustice and the potential for violence.
Apparently, waging war, bankrupting the United States, occupying foreign countries, terrorizing and killing civilians, and putting American soldiers at great risk is no cause for moral outrage.
So while the war hawks may feel relief that the “credit card for war” has been renewed, their defensive stance against Wikileaks reveals the shakiness of their position.
Wikileaks, which describes itself as “a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public,” is only one source seeking to expose the wars for what they are.
The toppling of General McChrystal via Michael Hasting’s essay in the Rolling Stone, the leaked video of US forces shooting Iraqi civilians and journalists, and now the “Afghan War Diary,” reveal a growing movement among independent journalists and whistleblowers to bring the occupations to an end.
Loss of life is not the concern of the US war machine. Their true concern lies in the threat of truth—and truth has a million sources.
One hundred and fourteen congress members would vote “no” on allocating the 59 billion dollar sum for the war. But 308 voted “yes,” and the bill passed.
The war hawks can breathe a sigh of relief for now, having padded their coffers with US taxpayers’ money to continue to fund an illegal, misguided, bloody war in a sovereign country.
A trillion dollars has now been spent on the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, two wars that now span nearly a decade. While a vast majority of Americans not only oppose the war in Afghanistan, a vast majority (80%) believes that the United States is headed in the wrong direction—on many fronts.
But, according to the war hawks, the war is progressing and we are “in it,” as Sarah Palin said, “to win it.” The war hawks are now taking an apparently nonchalant attitude toward the leaked documents, arguing that they reveal “nothing new.”
They continue to hold fast to the hard line that the war is necessary; it is a means to protect freedom and democracy. Indeed, they remind us, we are fighting a ruthless, vicious enemy that would do us harm.
But the war hawks are now finding themselves engaged in a figurative war with another enemy: the source of the leaked documents, Wikileaks, and its founder, Julian Assange.
And so, they have launched a campaign of moral outrage against the “traitors.” The release of the war documents, they argue, could spur potential “loss of life;” the leaked documents could “endanger lives;” and according to Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the leaks could have “potentially dramatic and grievously harmful consequences” (New York Times, 7/29/10).
Ironically, the war hawks now publicly utter concern over “loss of life.” Suddenly, the source of the leaked documents becomes a dangerous enemy force. Hypocritically, the war hawks portray outrage over injustice and the potential for violence.
Apparently, waging war, bankrupting the United States, occupying foreign countries, terrorizing and killing civilians, and putting American soldiers at great risk is no cause for moral outrage.
So while the war hawks may feel relief that the “credit card for war” has been renewed, their defensive stance against Wikileaks reveals the shakiness of their position.
Wikileaks, which describes itself as “a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public,” is only one source seeking to expose the wars for what they are.
The toppling of General McChrystal via Michael Hasting’s essay in the Rolling Stone, the leaked video of US forces shooting Iraqi civilians and journalists, and now the “Afghan War Diary,” reveal a growing movement among independent journalists and whistleblowers to bring the occupations to an end.
Loss of life is not the concern of the US war machine. Their true concern lies in the threat of truth—and truth has a million sources.