The world press went completely bonkers Sunday night, remaining frenzied, in the wake of The Guardian’s, The New York Times’ and Der Spiegel’s publication of extracts from some 90,000 classified logs from WikiLeaks, documenting alleged mistakes and unnecessary civilian casualties, by the hands of NATO-lead ISAF forces in Afghanistan.
Time, or rather lack thereof, forbids me to investigate the matter in detail, if at all, but whenever this amount of classified documents becomes public domain, there’s much cause for alarm. Yes, I’m all for unearthing inappropriate conduct, especially when civilian lives are in harm’s way, as in this incident, published by just WikiLeaks earlier this year:
In supporting it, however, there’s no need to uncritically condone the bulk release of some 90,000 logs, of which there’s bound to be faulty, potentially doctored material. I’m full aware that said newspapers (and magazine) have spent the last couple of weeks confirming loads of logs, finding them above board and in order, but they cannot possibly have managed to cover more than a fraction.
Even so, we need to take into account that we’re still dealing with classified material. Classified for a reason. By making it available to a world audience, WikiLeaks and their media cohorts expose tactical routines, secret designations, possible identities and so forth and so on. Yes, they are right to reveal unjustified civilian casualties, which, in my humble opinion, could well be done without publishing the sum total of 92,000 classified military reports.
You may well ask who stands to gain. This much, I think, is certain: Not the ISAF soldiers and their safety, not the Afghan people, whose safety largely depends on the safety of the former.
In short, since I’m so pressed for time: Dear WikiLeaks, please continue to share grave mistakes with serious implications for Afghan (or Iraqi) civilians or ISAF soldiers, even, but in doing so, please consider the overall consequences, too – and leave irrelevant material be, however classified.
Uncovering secrets for uncovery’s sake, is nothing short of stupid.
Photo: Norwegian troops running operations in the Faryab Province, Afghanistan. Wikimedia Commons
