WikiLeaks' perverse agenda

The whistleblower group has had some success in turning public opinion against the Afghanistan war. But their sensationalist campaign isn't helping anyone's cause, including their own

Daniel Larison

WikiLeaks’ release of 92,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan has confirmed what most attentive observers have known for many years — namely, that U.S. and allied actions caused many civilian casualties and that rogue Pakistani agents’ have been aiding the Taliban. While familiar to policymakers and journalists, the information has come as something of a revelation to an American public that’s grown skeptical and impatient with the war, and the dismissive response from the war’s supporters is just that much more infuriating for people who find the documents shocking or discouraging. Supporters of the mission (including myself) have evidently done a poor job informing and winning over the public, so it becomes all the more important that we now put the WikiLeaks documents in their proper context and make it clear why the leak shouldn’t be allowed to derail current policies.

Perversely, leaking this information in the name of exposing U.S. “war crimes” could take us back to the failed tactics catalogued in the leaked documents

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Daniel Larison has a Ph.D. in history and is a contributing editor at The American Conservative. He also writes on the blog Eunomia.