Today on Democracy Now, they played the following quote from Admiral Mike Mullen who spoke out against Wikileaks and their huge document-release:
ADM. MIKE MULLEN: Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family. Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we’ve been given, but don’t put those who willingly go into harm’s way even further in harm’s way just to satisfy your need to make a point.
via democracynow.org
The huge irony here is the part I italicized. I’m sure, if there’s one thing Admiral Mike Mullen (or any other military mucky-muck) knows about, it’s what it’s like to have blood on your hands. What a child to think that sort of argument would work against someone like Assange.
And check it out—if Assange ends up being to blame for the deaths of anyone, doesn’t it follow that it’s really the military that should be blamed since they put those soldiers and those Afghan families in harm’s way in the first place? Let’s take that one better—let’s blame the guy who put the military in a place where it could then put those soldiers and Afghan families in harm’s way. It’s the Commander-in-Chief. So really, it’s George W. Bush who may have the blood of “some young soldier or that of an Afghan family” not Jim Henson’s Wikileaks Babies.
Give me a break, Mullen.
Everyone knows people die in war!! The news media and the military has done a great job of cynically reminding us of how there’s nothing new in the docs that were Wikileaked. So, why the hell would Assange and his supporters hesitate to release docs that could result in deaths when so many on both sides have died already?
Oh really? “Some young soldier” might die? Well, maybe if he hadn’t been ordered to invade a country, he wouldn’t have died.
Stupid, useless argument.
And how can the military and it’s propaganda wing have the gall to ignore the rich, choco-flavored irony of accusing Assange and Pals of having blood on their hands???
Seriously—is there not a sane brain in the American government today?
This war is unjust, it’s costing too much, people continue to die for nothing and we all know it—WHAT IS THE DEBATE HERE?
US Military: you’re following orders, we get that, but this war (and the one in Iraq) is a dead dead dead end. We can’t fix it and are only responsible for the latest round of messed-up-edness there. That “country” has been messed-up for thousands of years. Let it go.
And let our soldiers come home.
Yes people will die because we left, but they’ll die if we stay. And we shouldn’t have gone in the first place. If we had sent in an elite, light-weight task force to track down ObL, I think we’d have gotten a lot closer to our goal there. But that’s an alternate reality now… or is *this* the alternate reality? >_<
