There are times when a government simply can't be totally honest. There are military things like troop locations and troop movement, intelligence things like what we know about whom, and if these were to get out then the defense of the country would be put in jeopardy. Lives could be lost. I'm reminded of when Geraldo was demonstrating on international TV the movements of the troops he was accompanying, giving away information that theoretically could have put them in real danger.
On the other side, there are times when the government isn't honest. Recently it's been in the news that the Vice President tried to link Iraq to one of the hijackers on 9/11 via a forged letter. If it weren't for someone stepping forward and breaking the silence or someone seeking out the hidden information, things like this would never be uncovered by the public. And it seems that the less transparent a government, the more they
can get away with.
What can and can't be said? Where is the line between responsible secrecy and lies of omission? Do you believe that your government (that goes not just for citizens of the US, but all our TFP international crowd) is too secretive? Do you believe they should be more secretive?
I, personally, am a bit concerned about the US government recently. The lead up to the Iraq war seems to be littered with problems, and had the American people and Congress known more about those problems at the time it's possible that the war wouldn't have been approved. It seems that as the information slowly leaks out now that things were done under the protection of secrecy that betrayed a lot of people's trust.
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