[1548] THE FALLOUT- Okay, think this will be the last political post for this recent run [hey- I don’t want to stroke out!]. Let’s review a few things; remember what we were told when the Wikileaks files were first released? The media and our govt. [the Obama administration included] said the files were releasing the names of ‘undercover’ people- they were releasing info that would get our guys killed- they basically claimed the info. was going to cause harm/damage to many of our fighting men and women. What has happened? All the stories I have seen have been things that exposed the hypocrisy and lying of those in power. How our govt. put pressure on other countries not to pursue justice in certain cases- how our top political people have publicly lied to us about our actions in the wars. About a year ago ‘the nation’ magazine ran a story on our troops operating ‘illegally’ inside Pakistan’s borders. Our govt. publicly denied it; Richard Holbrook- special envoy to the region- stated in no uncertain terms that those stories were false. The press secretary for the White House denied it. The reporter who was about to run the story got a call from one of our top military leaders- he was warned not to run the story- there would ‘be consequences’. The story ran, our govt. denied it. The leaks showed us that yes indeed; we were operating in Pakistan in a way that we were denying to the public. They lied to us- not about an insignificant thing- but about war. Former president Putin [Soviet Union] was on Larry king the other night; he ‘told off’ the U.S. govt. he said we should mind our own damn business. The leaks revealed how our guys were gossiping about Putin and his disarray among his men. The leaks showed how the Obama administration put tremendous pressure on Spain and other countries- to not pursue any ‘war crimes’ investigations against Bush and Cheney, Obama pressured other countries to not pursue it. Lots of these leaks have not been about putting our men in danger- or exposing undercover ‘ops’- they’ve been about revealing how our govt. has lied, cheated, did back room deals- all under the guise of ‘doing what needed to get done’. This week we had Peter King [Republican rep. from N.Y.] call for the assassination of Julian Assange ‘on site’. Sarah Palin said the same- Mike Huckabee advocates the execution of the disturbed soldier who illegally stole the files from the computer base. ‘Assassinate’ wow- strong words to use against a person who exposed the hidden deals and agendas of our leaders. Our wonderful media- both sides [the MSNBC/FOX crowd] - produce political theatre for their target audience- the bottom line is what their concerned about. We need to keep ‘public news’ sources around [P.B.S.- radio- etc.] We need sources that are not run by the ad money they bring in. Just last night I started seeing a little change in the coverage of Julian Assange, and saw some media shows using the Wikileaks in a positive way- treating the leaks like real news stories- carefully looking at the real ‘hidden’ info that we were previously not aware of- that’s what the media is supposed to do with ‘leaked’ info- they do it all the time for heaven’s sake! I don’t know how this story will end- I’m sure I’ll write a few more posts as time goes by- I just wanted to make us all aware of our own biases- our ‘inability’ to see that we were sold a bill of goods- we were told ‘innocents will die- assassinate the man responsible on site’ now were giving it a second thought- maybe we jumped the gun-maybe we didn’t truly think for ourselves but let others do the thinking for us. Maybe we’ll do better next time around- maybe?