Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - changing how you think about afghanistan: a massive leak of military documents.

roachboy · 07-26-2010, 07:53 AM

i don't buy that argument at all. first, there's absolutely no support for the accusation--neither of you has looked at the material, so how on earth would you know whether it compromises anything?
second, wikileaks has redacted the materials that's been released so far and there's another group of about 16k files for redaction.

third, the material released covers the period 2004-2009.

fourth: the packaging of war for domestic consumption strikes me as being about the most anti-democratic imaginable thing. better that consent for war has to deal with a sense of what is really at stake. what i've found interesting about these logs so far is the degree to which they reflect something of the floating surface of war, so the reality of rumors and intel and accidents and deliberate killings, failures and problems, limits of co-operation and problems with alliances (pakistan)...and this not because of a war-movie kind of voyeurism. more because it is chaos and ugly and should not be undertaken without a clear objective, war. and afghanistan was undertaken without a clear objective or a coherent strategy. it is a policy fuck up of very considerable proportions and it is a policy fuck up that is predominantly owned by the right.

so of course there's a problem with the release.

o security security. horseshit. most all the whining is about political self-interest channel through some hypocritical invocation of the Abstract Troops who are Being Endangered.

and so what if the people behind wikileaks oppose the war in afghanistan?
does that mean the information released isn't real?
what is the point of this "objection"?

better to know what's going on more than less and not to rely on marketing departments that sell war like its a kind of deodorant.

====
edit ( a little later):

the interpretive questions that hover around these files are real. i'm pleased that slims added some information above about them...for what it's worth i am reading alot of this material and it's quite helpful to know more rather than less about the status of the documents.

07-26-2010, 07:53 AM	#11 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i don't buy that argument at all. first, there's absolutely no support for the accusation--neither of you has looked at the material, so how on earth would you know whether it compromises anything? second, wikileaks has redacted the materials that's been released so far and there's another group of about 16k files for redaction. third, the material released covers the period 2004-2009. fourth: the packaging of war for domestic consumption strikes me as being about the most anti-democratic imaginable thing. better that consent for war has to deal with a sense of what is really at stake. what i've found interesting about these logs so far is the degree to which they reflect something of the floating surface of war, so the reality of rumors and intel and accidents and deliberate killings, failures and problems, limits of co-operation and problems with alliances (pakistan)...and this not because of a war-movie kind of voyeurism. more because it is chaos and ugly and should not be undertaken without a clear objective, war. and afghanistan was undertaken without a clear objective or a coherent strategy. it is a policy fuck up of very considerable proportions and it is a policy fuck up that is predominantly owned by the right. so of course there's a problem with the release. o security security. horseshit. most all the whining is about political self-interest channel through some hypocritical invocation of the Abstract Troops who are Being Endangered. and so what if the people behind wikileaks oppose the war in afghanistan? does that mean the information released isn't real? what is the point of this "objection"? better to know what's going on more than less and not to rely on marketing departments that sell war like its a kind of deodorant. ==== edit ( a little later): the interpretive questions that hover around these files are real. i'm pleased that slims added some information above about them...for what it's worth i am reading alot of this material and it's quite helpful to know more rather than less about the status of the documents. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 07-26-2010 at 08:10 AM..