Leakers?
Doesn't this sound to you like diapers that have closure (and containment) issues?
Or perhaps somehow related to floaters (whoa, I was thinking toilet humor and found that). Given that revelation, let's go see what wikipedia has to say about "leakers" ... nope, nada.
But anyway yesterday I was reading stuff on the folks who have been leaking classified information and how high muckity mucks aren't held to the same standards that the working men (and women) are prosecuted under. Well today I went and looked at my new link to milblogwire.com. The first one pissed me off since "Uncle Jimbo" was wailing about how these two leakers/whistleblowers (Dana Priest and Mary McCarthy) should be not just imprisoned in the black jails they leaked about, but perhaps shot because they were "endangering our national security". He calls them names and insults their motivations and all sorts of other stand up sort of neo con tactics. I did notice that he didn't seem to consider the other side of the coin or how he might have responded in a similar situation. He only seemed to repeat the same old tired fear-mongering that the administration uses to justify their questionable tactics.
That pissed me off and I almost removed the link itself and called it quits on them. However I read down further to see what else was on there and if it had any redeeming qualities or was just a place where survivalists and right wing fascist-wannabes hung out. The next piece was bagging on the retired generals who have come out against Rummy. Blah. Since none of us have been inside those meetings between the high level military commanders and Rummy there's no way we could know whether what they're saying is true or not. So speculation is pointless, especially since Bush favors loyality over competance or integrity any day.
Then I got to this piece, Music From Heaven. This is why I put the link on there in the first place. Stories from soldiers who have "been there, done that" on the ground in Iraq. This is what I wanted to read there, not the ranting crap of some inbred mouthbreathing monobrowed moron with a gun and an internet connection.
There is one other thing I wanted to say on the leakers. It's a tricky place to have to be. On the one hand you have classified operations/actions/documents/whatever. I've been pretty clear on where I stand on treatment and handling of classified information. But what if it's something like torture being done (by our people/in our name) on captured (operatives/spys/terrorists/combatants/whatever) prisoners? What if the information so gleaned is used to save tens, hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives?
Do methods matter? If we descend into barbaric behavior are we really any better than the terrorists? And if we are no better than the terrorists, do we deserve to win? How much of our modern American mindset is composed of our own conviction of our inherant right to triumph because we are good, moral and just?
Or perhaps somehow related to floaters (whoa, I was thinking toilet humor and found that). Given that revelation, let's go see what wikipedia has to say about "leakers" ... nope, nada.
But anyway yesterday I was reading stuff on the folks who have been leaking classified information and how high muckity mucks aren't held to the same standards that the working men (and women) are prosecuted under. Well today I went and looked at my new link to milblogwire.com. The first one pissed me off since "Uncle Jimbo" was wailing about how these two leakers/whistleblowers (Dana Priest and Mary McCarthy) should be not just imprisoned in the black jails they leaked about, but perhaps shot because they were "endangering our national security". He calls them names and insults their motivations and all sorts of other stand up sort of neo con tactics. I did notice that he didn't seem to consider the other side of the coin or how he might have responded in a similar situation. He only seemed to repeat the same old tired fear-mongering that the administration uses to justify their questionable tactics.
That pissed me off and I almost removed the link itself and called it quits on them. However I read down further to see what else was on there and if it had any redeeming qualities or was just a place where survivalists and right wing fascist-wannabes hung out. The next piece was bagging on the retired generals who have come out against Rummy. Blah. Since none of us have been inside those meetings between the high level military commanders and Rummy there's no way we could know whether what they're saying is true or not. So speculation is pointless, especially since Bush favors loyality over competance or integrity any day.
Then I got to this piece, Music From Heaven. This is why I put the link on there in the first place. Stories from soldiers who have "been there, done that" on the ground in Iraq. This is what I wanted to read there, not the ranting crap of some inbred mouthbreathing monobrowed moron with a gun and an internet connection.
There is one other thing I wanted to say on the leakers. It's a tricky place to have to be. On the one hand you have classified operations/actions/documents/whatever. I've been pretty clear on where I stand on treatment and handling of classified information. But what if it's something like torture being done (by our people/in our name) on captured (operatives/spys/terrorists/combatants/whatever) prisoners? What if the information so gleaned is used to save tens, hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives?
Do methods matter? If we descend into barbaric behavior are we really any better than the terrorists? And if we are no better than the terrorists, do we deserve to win? How much of our modern American mindset is composed of our own conviction of our inherant right to triumph because we are good, moral and just?
posted by banzai at 10:19
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home