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As a parent I will always remember that WikiLeaks (Assange) helped to stop the torture of children in Iraq. The war cables revealed that the US government knew
by dandare 8y ago
As a parent I will always remember that WikiLeaks (Assange) helped to stop the torture of children in Iraq. The war cables revealed that the US government knew about the routine torture of prisoners and opponents including women and children by the Iraqi authorities, a de facto puppet regime of the US. The US government knew about this from the alarmed reports of its own personnel and decided to turn a blind eye because... I have no idea why.
If not for Assange and Manning, more parent's would have to watch while their child is brutally tortured and mutilated by the psychopathic enforcers of the US puppet regime.
This is where every rational discussion about WikiLeaks and Assange should always start. Now we can talk about Assange's abrasive personality and dumb political views.
- empath75 8y agoI think Obama and Bush really badly mishandled both Snowden and Assange. Heavy handed responses to both of them drove them into the arms of Russia. I don’t think either of them were Russian assets when they started.
- billfruit 8y agoAnd also Julia Gillard, she was very unsympathetic, even hostile to him.
- roenxi 8y agoJulia Gillard [then PM of Australia, 0]. The Australian governments mild condemnation of Assange as the situation unfolded was as disappointing as it was predictable. US lap-dogs and all that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard
- UweSchmidt 8y agoHow should it have been "handled" in your opinion? 'Protect the whistleblower' or take out the 'threat to national interests'?
- dandare 8y agoIn both cases, it would be in US' national interests to put the long term consequences before the short term gains.
- UweSchmidt 8y agoLong term consequences as 'preventing other secrets from being leaked' or 'maintaining an image as a trustworthy and ethical actor' on the world stage?
- dandare 8y agoWill not 'maintaining an image as a trustworthy and ethical actor' be the most efficient way of 'preventing other secrets from being leaked'?
- tgragnato 8y agoLeakers are insiders, they know what's happening regardless of the image perceived by the public. I am skeptical of this consequentiality, but I recognize that it's an argument someone in the government could believe in.
- komali2 8y agoI mean, if you don't let your government gas civilians, it's not like there's anything there worth leaking.
- enriquto 8y ago> How should it have been "handled" in your opinion? 'Protect the whistleblower' or take out the 'threat to national interests'? Congratulating them for their great work towards human rights and publicly expelling and denouncing the perpetrators of atrocities. You know, leading by example.
- smokeyj 8y ago> or take out the 'threat to national interests'? Isn't that what we did in Iraq, blindly listen to the IC? Ha, that was an A++ operation. All those lives lost - for absolutely nothing. I mean sure there was "Iraqi democracy" but where did the WMD's go? The solution being proposed is to literally kill the messenger. It's a two-party induced cognitive dissonance where you would rather be lied to than have your political affiliation be embarrassed.
- decoyworker 8y agoThere is a lot of appeal to emotion in your post. Can we both agree that war is bad and things are always more complex than they seem? In the grand scheme of things these events rank pretty low on the list of priorities when you are fighting a war.
- zrth 8y agoTorture is and stays torture. What is there to agreed upon? The fact that some regime decided to invade a foreign country out of self-interested changes nothing at all.
- decoyworker 8y agoThat statement is true. Torture is and stays torture but would you agree that there is more than one variable in war? Your second point is a red herring.
- tremon 8y agoTorture is and stays torture but No. You can stop there. Stop trying to defend the undefensible.
- decoyworker 8y agoWhere do I defend torture?
- dandare 8y agoNot only does my post appeal to emotion, it openly appeals to emotion. On the other hand, your post uses the appeal to middle ground fallacy. If your list of priorities starts with anything other than stopping the routine torture of children, then your grand scheme of things is probably evil.
- ttmb 8y agoThis is hardly the rational discussion you claimed to be starting.
- darkpuma 8y ago> "The US government knew about this from the alarmed reports of its own personnel and decided to turn a blind eye because... I don't know why." During the Iran-Iraq War the CIA knowingly and deliberately helped Iraq launch poison gas attacks against the Iranians, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties, most of them civilian. So, par for the course isn't it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War#Iraq's_use_of_chemical_weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War#Iraq's_u... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_chemical_attacks_against_Iran#Casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_chemical_attacks_against...
- donaldknuth123 8y agoSo can we also start the conversation with how Assange handed Trump the 2016 Election and has enabled a Psychopathic Egomaniac to terrorize Minorities in the US and ruthlessly breaks apart young children from their families, threatens to torture and bomb Terrorist's families, thinks Nazis are good people etc?