Big release of Afghanistan documents paints dour war picture

[Professor Smarmiarty]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

So a massive amount (near 100,000) of documents got released today on Wikileaks. Will take a while to go through them but early reports are that they show the war in Afghanistan is more disorder and in bigger troublethan has been presented by those in command- which everybody strongly suspected anyway.

Importantly some civilains deaths been turned up which haven't been reported suggesting a lack of accountability by the military. If you going to slaughter people at least keep a record.
Another thrust is the government condemning the release of these files as militarily sensitive despite being well out of date- that really seems to be coveringtheir own tracks.

[RobinStarwing]

I'd like to see the documents about Civilian Deaths as the Taliban's and Al Qaeda's tactics involve sometimes using Civilians as shields (even children). Than there is also the fact that these soldiers are nervous and wondering when the next attack will come. That can cause nerves to be jittered and cause things to go wrong.

As to the command aspects, you got qualified people that aren't making the decisions and non-qualified that are. Combine that with Karzai's government and no wonder Afghanistan is becoming a mess.

But this is my opinion of the matter.

[Jagos]

SMB, I can actually one up you:

Secret America (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/)

There's so much secrecy in our US right now, it explains why there's so many people frustrated within our ranks.

Think about it, 850K people have top secret clearance. How many could leak so much at any time?

[01d55]

I like how all these big deal secret documents tell us basically exactly nothing that we hadn't already inferred or known.

It's like, the big reason why conspiracy theories never sway me is that only specific details can ever reasonably be concealed, you can't go and have a stupid war go terribly wrong and then conceal that fact by classifying a bunch of shit.

[Osterbaum]

I suppose the real issue then is that they classified anything in the first place.

[RobinStarwing]

So I had the time to listen to the news go over these documents and I will be spending some time doing so but from what I am gathering, this is a mixed bag of documents. I will break it down into what I heard so far and what I think of it.

ISI-Taliban Connection ->No getting around this one...this is something WE SHOULD KNOW. The fact that Pakistan's Intelligence Service is giving logistical support to the Taliban which than kill US and Coalition forces should be cause for alarm. I know I wouldn't want my tax money gong to aid Pakistan if all it will do is try to ensure an ally against India by giving that money to the Taliban and/or Al Qaeda.


Predator Drone Issues ->This is information that should NOT have been released. Wikileaks dropped the ball letting this out as it shows that someone with the right know how and tech could steal our drones right from under us either by destroying or blocking the signal. I think the last thing any of us would want is a Predator or Reaper Drone in the hands of Terrorists, China, North Korea, or Iran.


Civilian Deaths -> This is a mixed bag. On one hand, it says that there is a severe under reporting of these that should not be going on. But on the other it gives Al Qaeda, The Taliban, and other Anti-Western groups/governments fuel for their fires.


Shoulder-Launched SAMs-> Again, like the Drones, something that SHOULD NOT HAVE been put up on Wikileaks. Now to clarify, some of you are hearing Stingers and only Stingers. This isn't neccesarily accurate as while there are Stingers given to the Afghans during the Soviet Incursion by the US, the Afghans also salvaged a lot of Soviet scrap, and this included the SA-7 Grail (Strela-2 in Russia) shoulder-launched SAM. Less effective considering it could defeated by Flares or Ground reflection of Infra-red thanks to hilly terrain. But Chinooks don't have Flares and Ground Reflection depends on time of day plus terrain.


Julian Assange, Wikileaks Founder This guy gets the most scathing and loathing from me as he has been a full time Activist against the Afghan War and US Policy. He is biased in the extreme and let that bias put things out there that would reveal weaknesses in our technology; how we do things; and other raw intel our enemies (and so-called friends like China) to make guess works on how we would respond to things. That said, Julian Assange...please do us a favor and next time you want to leak something...show restraint on WHAT you release. You could of now put the lives of your own countrymen in danger too.

[Kim]

Civilian Deaths -> This is a mixed bag. On one hand, it says that there is a severe under reporting of these that should not be going on. But on the other it gives Al Qaeda, The Taliban, and other Anti-Western groups/governments fuel for their fires.

That they have "more fuel for their fires" is, as I see it, our own damn fault. Don't blame the guys who tell the truth about a fuckup. Blame the people who fucked up.

[RobinStarwing]

That they have "more fuel for their fires" is, as I see it, our own damn fault. Don't blame the guys who tell the truth about a fuckup. Blame the people who fucked up.

Was I blaming anyone? No. I just said it was a mixed bag. They should be reported so we can hold people in charge accountable on one hand. On the other hand this just fuels Islamic Fundamentalists and gives them things they can use to bring more to their cause.