Pentagon Papers II

The NYT through WikiLeaks released classified military documents that paints a realistic but bleak picture of war in Afghanistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/26wiki.html

"WikiLeaks.org, the online organization that posted tens of thousands of classified military field reports about the Afghan war on Sunday, says its goal in disclosing secret documents is to reveal “unethical behavior” by governments and corporations. "

 

It's also being reported by The Guardian in England and Der Spiegel in Germany, with all three working together on the release, in part to give themselves multijurisdictional cover.

It's the front 16 pages of The Guardian, so I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet. I'm hoping to get to it on the way home.

 

I guess it depends on how you define original reporting.
Certainly in today's paper The Times provides a lot of context and interpretation of the notes.

 

One of key concerns raised - Pakistan taking our aid but then turning around and training the Taliban to kill our troops.

If this is not a wake call to America I don't know what is.

Let the debate begin.

 

A wake-up call for what? That we should get out of this war? Or that we need more troops and/or need to keep them there indefinitely?

 

I believe the wake-up call is that we need to start squabbling over which current or recent President to blame for the mess.

Well, that's what's going to happen anyway.

 

Exactly. We're past the wake up call now. I think we can all agree on how fucked up the situation is. But how do we get out of it? Nobody wants to commit deeper to it, but pulling out right now would be viewed as Al Qaeda defeating us. So we remain stuck in this middle zone clusterfuck.

 

A wake up call to get out. We cannot even accurately pin point who we are fighting.

Hopefully Senator Kerry in his position as Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations committee becomes a voice of opposition. He can certainly speak from experience.

 

We leave now and the terrorists have won. Except this time that won't just be a dumb overused cliche.

 

Which terrorists? What have they won? As FHB asked is this worth sacrificing more American lives?

Who are we fighting? Al Queada? The Taliban? Pakistan?