Wikileaks and the Afghan War Diaries

Wikileaks and the Afghan War Diaries

I was alerted to this on the train home just yesterday:
Wikileaks, the more aggressive cousin of Wikipedia, has released several thousand documents that are claimed to have come from the Pentagon itself. These documents pertain to activities by the US and Coalition forces in Afghnanistan. Among the more sensitive pieces of information is the allegation of evidence of war crimes being committed on both sides of the war there.

Owing to the somewhat trashy nature of the first source I read, I had to find other, more credible sources on the internet. Given time restraints placed on one by life in general, I managed to go right to the original Wikileaks website. Since there really are over 70,000 reports to be read, I certainly have not had time to read them all. But since this is an opinion piece and not an investigative expose that I am writing, I can proceed with validity.

The allegations levelled by Julian Assange (Wikileaks creator) are that war crimes are being committed by US and allied troops. Keeping this as the crux of the issue, I want to address the question that any interested party might be asking:
Should the information have been exposed at all?

For many people, including especially in the rabid right-wing US media, the answer is as clear, simple, black-and-white as any question in their lives: NO! This would also go for anyone related to the US government, let alone the Department of Defence.
Their reasons are clear, too.

Where the media is concerned, there is a dollar-value on everything, and something like this presents a high dollar-value, namely in political controversy, anti-foreigner sentiment (Wikileaks founder Assange is an Australian), and war coverage. And let us not forget to mention the mountain of 'talking points' that they now have to dig into.

For the US military, it is definitely a question of security. The lives of troops on the ground in Afghanistan, the security of the Pakistan alliance. And, like any other war in modern history, this leak could seriously jeopardise public opinion and support of the War.

I'd now like to make s few things clear for my readers. Starting in no particular order:
Public opinion on the War in Afghanistan is no longer an issue. When Lindsay Lohan going to jail garners more press coverage, or Justin Beiber's appearance anywhere prompts larger riots than the War itself, politicians should rest their weary heads, well-assured that no-one is going to picket their electorate offices. The lawns of government buildings will be a manicured tomorrow and next week as they were yesterday. There is simply nothing to fear.

I have heard stories of the demise of the Vietnam War. In 1970, there was a massive rally in San Francisco, and others across the USA, hippies, wokring class, mothers and widows all demanding with a particularly loud, singular voice, the end of the War. Vietnam went on for a protracted 11 or 12 years, depensing on when you want to state the starting time. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam are all similar in their origins, all having never been formally declared as "war". They just sorta happened.

Regarding concerns over the security of the troops and the alliances, more needs to be clarified:

Pakistan has a long and proud history of dragging its feet into alliances. There is the ongoing predicament between it and India, which will never be solved. Both sides of the conflict choose to define themselves in mutually exclusive ways, thereby disallowing any possible form of co-operation. Kashmir doesn't need to be Muslim or Hindu, it just needs to have a government. Pakistan managed to loose an entire half of its territory in the Cold War, when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) decided to cede. China propped Pakistan up as an irritant to an independent India, even gave them nuclear weapons!
For the last ten years, Pakistani leaders, all taking power after coups, have whinged and whined to the USA for more moeny and materiel, to fight an enemy that slept on their doorstep. Pakistan's numerous governments have for decades tolerated Afghan refugee camps well inside their eastern borders, and at no point since World War II ended can that border be described as anything less than "porous".
My point? Pakistan will hang off the USA's coat-tails as long as it has to, until another great power comes along. This event will occur when the USA hegemon finally collapsed (I'd give it inside of 5 years), and wither Russia or China will rise to the job vacancy of offering a counter-weight to India.

Troops on the ground are already in serious danger in Afghanistan. Each and every day they face lethal danger. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are, by their very name, created and planted everywhere and anywhere, on the roads, in buildings, markets, etc. Intelligence support comes from bureaucrats who wear suits and ties and sit infront of big screens in darkened rooms back in the capital cities of the country they belong to. The bureaucrats are in no danger at all, and couldn't really care less about the lives of the soldiers that they are ordering around like a game of Command and Conquer or Call of Duty. Intel is gathered from the shadiest of sources, most of whom are natives of Afghanistan, and care equally little about who wins what battle around them. For the troops, the enemy is even harder to spot than in Vietnam - at least back then the VC wore their little black pyjamas. I find it very hard to see how the leaking of documents by some slight-framed Australian greenie could make things worse for them!

To put the political situation very simply, the people of Afghanistan have never experienced democracy. They barely experienced Feudalism. How can they possibly be expected to grasp and appreciate the freedom that our troops are supposed to be forcing on them?

And of course, the media again.

Media has evolved over the last century from newsreels at public moving-picture theatres to full-on, opinion-laced 24 hour non-stop cable news programs. Where the journalist was once defined as an impartial deliverer of truth for the public to decide, they are now salesmen, pushing a product that is invariably dictated by the owner of the media empire. In most cases, this is Rupert Murdoch. But he's not the only one. Other media companies, in frail hopelessness, have attempted to emulate the Murdochracy, rather then supercede it with actual factual reporting. Governments will rise and fall, but media empires will last forever, so it seems. Victors once wrote the history books, but history is now being written in glorious real-time on your iPad.

To end my writing here, it would be hoped that the Wikileaks leak of the Afghan War Diary would serve to bring into serious question the nature of the War, with such force and vigour as to make policy-makers tear out the umbilical links that keep them silent on the war, and call the troops home. Like that photo of a VietCong soldier getting his brains blown out, which ended the pro-Vietnam war sentiment irrevocably.
The Afghanistan War was started as a knee-jerk to September 11 2001. We are finding ourselves in a world where people are being born and growing up without even knowing what happened on September 11, 2001. The next generations are conditioned to accept that Afghanistan is a war that had no beginning, and shall have not end. Much like Israel and Pakistan-India.
10 years later, we are still paying heavy prices in blood, matieriel, and MONEY for the Afghan War. The lessons of Vietnam have been unheeded, and the USA is dying.

Will Wikileaks' actions bring about the change in policy? In my humble opinion, I wished so, but NO. No-one cares anymore. A hundred years ago it would have forced a Second Civil War and maybe even a revolution. Forty years ago, it would have torn the US government in half. Thirty years ago, ti would have caused a President to resign. Ten years ago, a Democratic President would have been impeached by a bitter, hypocritical and resentful Republican controlled Congress. Now, it will take a tenth-page single column in some trashy, lowest-common-denominator publication that is broadcast to your iPad.

The War in Afghanistan will end when the USA does. Let's say approximately 2015.