I must say that I am rather disappointed in many of my fellow Escapists. I commented in this forum a while back, then left it, and just now came back. I've taken a look, and the number of people who are against Wikileaks and supportive of the US government's authoritarian acts, and the number who claim they don't even care at all, is very disturbing. I will respect your opinions--you certainly have a right to them. But still...
I don't want to make too many generalizations, but I always thought the Escapist was home to relatively young and young-at-heart individuals. Shouldn't we be rebellious and free-spirited and always suspicious of the Man and his latest attempts to tyrannize us? So many people seem so willing to let the government lie through its teeth and kill thousands of people so long as it doesn't interrupt our daily lives. Come on! That's the attitude of old people who no longer believe that change is possible!
People are going on and on about Wikileaks being a threat to the world, but so far there is not a single case of somebody getting hurt or killed as a result of Wikileaks. Government secrecy, on the other hand, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties alone. It is pretty well accepted today that the Bush administration ignored and misinterpreted an awful lot of intelligence taking the US into the Iraq war--at best, they were almost criminally negligent, and at worst they knowingly lied to start a war for no reason. The civilian death toll in Iraq is now 100,000+. This is not enemy soldiers or terrorists--that is the number of CIVILIANS that have died since the war began. Just as it was civilians who died on 9-11 in New York, it was and is civilians dying in Iraq. If leaks and whistle blowing could have prevented even half of those deaths, wouldn't that be worth bruising the egos of a few politicians?
The Iraq War Logs, leaked by Wikileaks, revealed about 15,000 new civilian deaths attributable to coalition forces that had been covered up and kept secret. That's about 5 9-11's worth of dead civilians that the US government was concealing. Yet people think Wikileaks is the greater threat? People get angry with Wikileaks? Why aren't people angry that the government did this in the first place? Talk about killing the messanger!
Also revealed: numerous shootings (and video evidence of them) where the video differs greatly from the official reports, numerous cases of US helicopters gunning down insurgents after they clearly surrendered, evidence of coalition forces turning over detainees to groups known to practice brutal torture (well beyond waterboarding, and keep in mind that the vast majority of these detainees are just normal people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, know absolutely nothing about any terrorists, and have never done anything to warrant torture), evidence of coalition forces using detainees as human bomb detectors/minesweepers, and many other horrible acts. Combine that with older incidents: Abu Ghraib, Guantanomo Bay, the Pat Tillman friendly fire cover up incident, etc, and I really have to ask: what more do you need to see?
Now, there is definitely room for disagreement on the methods of Wikileaks and Anonymous. I myself do not approve of some of the things these organizations have done. But you have to keep this disapproval in perspective--at most, Anonymous inconvenienced a few people and made the programmers at Paypal, Mastercard, and Verizon earn their money that week. Do you really think that is a big issue when THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE DYING AND THEIR DEATHS ARE BEING DELIBERATELY COVERED UP? As voters, it is our duty to stay informed and ensure that we elect a government that wields the power it has on loan from us in a just and responsible way. How can we do this if we do not have access to this sort of information? And of all the examples I have given above, can you name even one whose secrecy could really be justified on National Security grounds? Because that is the reason given for why such things are kept secret. It is ludicrous, and the evidence of massive misuse is heaping. It must end!
Please, fellow Escapists! Don't get distracted by fear mongering and spinning, and don't try to take refuge in apathy--these are important issues, perhaps some of the most important I have witnessed in my 28 years of life. This will affect you. Just because injustice is not directly impacting you at the moment does not mean you should turn a blind eye. As the story goes: 'first they came for the socialists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't Jewish. And when they finally came for me, there was no one left to speak up...'
I don't want to make too many generalizations, but I always thought the Escapist was home to relatively young and young-at-heart individuals. Shouldn't we be rebellious and free-spirited and always suspicious of the Man and his latest attempts to tyrannize us? So many people seem so willing to let the government lie through its teeth and kill thousands of people so long as it doesn't interrupt our daily lives. Come on! That's the attitude of old people who no longer believe that change is possible!
People are going on and on about Wikileaks being a threat to the world, but so far there is not a single case of somebody getting hurt or killed as a result of Wikileaks. Government secrecy, on the other hand, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties alone. It is pretty well accepted today that the Bush administration ignored and misinterpreted an awful lot of intelligence taking the US into the Iraq war--at best, they were almost criminally negligent, and at worst they knowingly lied to start a war for no reason. The civilian death toll in Iraq is now 100,000+. This is not enemy soldiers or terrorists--that is the number of CIVILIANS that have died since the war began. Just as it was civilians who died on 9-11 in New York, it was and is civilians dying in Iraq. If leaks and whistle blowing could have prevented even half of those deaths, wouldn't that be worth bruising the egos of a few politicians?
The Iraq War Logs, leaked by Wikileaks, revealed about 15,000 new civilian deaths attributable to coalition forces that had been covered up and kept secret. That's about 5 9-11's worth of dead civilians that the US government was concealing. Yet people think Wikileaks is the greater threat? People get angry with Wikileaks? Why aren't people angry that the government did this in the first place? Talk about killing the messanger!
Also revealed: numerous shootings (and video evidence of them) where the video differs greatly from the official reports, numerous cases of US helicopters gunning down insurgents after they clearly surrendered, evidence of coalition forces turning over detainees to groups known to practice brutal torture (well beyond waterboarding, and keep in mind that the vast majority of these detainees are just normal people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, know absolutely nothing about any terrorists, and have never done anything to warrant torture), evidence of coalition forces using detainees as human bomb detectors/minesweepers, and many other horrible acts. Combine that with older incidents: Abu Ghraib, Guantanomo Bay, the Pat Tillman friendly fire cover up incident, etc, and I really have to ask: what more do you need to see?
Now, there is definitely room for disagreement on the methods of Wikileaks and Anonymous. I myself do not approve of some of the things these organizations have done. But you have to keep this disapproval in perspective--at most, Anonymous inconvenienced a few people and made the programmers at Paypal, Mastercard, and Verizon earn their money that week. Do you really think that is a big issue when THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE DYING AND THEIR DEATHS ARE BEING DELIBERATELY COVERED UP? As voters, it is our duty to stay informed and ensure that we elect a government that wields the power it has on loan from us in a just and responsible way. How can we do this if we do not have access to this sort of information? And of all the examples I have given above, can you name even one whose secrecy could really be justified on National Security grounds? Because that is the reason given for why such things are kept secret. It is ludicrous, and the evidence of massive misuse is heaping. It must end!
Please, fellow Escapists! Don't get distracted by fear mongering and spinning, and don't try to take refuge in apathy--these are important issues, perhaps some of the most important I have witnessed in my 28 years of life. This will affect you. Just because injustice is not directly impacting you at the moment does not mean you should turn a blind eye. As the story goes: 'first they came for the socialists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't Jewish. And when they finally came for me, there was no one left to speak up...'
