Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Definition of 'Secret' Is...
Damn, I Don't Know Anymore

1.25 - These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.
6.9 - O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands. ~ The Art of War, Sun Tsu
The Pentagon has released its 282-page counterinsurgency manual as an open document, available to absolutely everyone. Including allowing the insurgents in Iraq to know exactly which tactics will be used and how they will be implemented. If knowledge is power, and in war it is, then the Pentagon has empowered the insurgents beyond any explosive weapon they could possibly have acquired.

On the other hand, former National Security Council Middle East analyst, Flynt Leverett, has written an op-ed for the New York Times. The article contains no secrets and has been approved by the CIA for publication. However, it is critical of the Bush Administration's refusal to engage in negotiations with Iran. The White House has declared Leverett's article Top Secret and forbidden its publication.

So, a highly sensitive document the release of which could, and probably will, cause the deaths of scores of servicemembers? That is an open, public document. But, an opinion piece that contains nothing remotely sensitive but is disparaging of the President's diplomacy? That is a classified state secret.

If release risks Bush's poll numbers? Secret.
If release only risks the lives of cannonfodder? Not secret.
Sense this makes? None.

P.S. I got my PDF copy of the counterinsurgency manual, get yours.

1 comment:

PoliShifter said...

I read about this earlier. It goes part-in-parcel with putting the instructions for how to make a nuclear weapon on the net.

My conclusion is this:

Bush needs the terrorists. Bush's foreign policy is about terrorism. Without terrorists Bush is nothing.

So Bush cultivates them. With terorrism a threat Bush can continue to run this country like a dictatorship since the People are all scared little sheep.

Bush tortures them, humiliates them, degrades them, defames them, occupies an Islamic Country, then releases them back and watches the terrorism happen.

Then he puts directions for how to make a nuclear device in hopes that some terrorist will try it.

Can you imagine if a terrorist attempted to blow up a city with a nuclear weapon what Bush would do to this country? We'd be under lockdown.

Then Bush publishes how the United States are going to go about combating terorism.

The terrorists are playing with a deck stacked by Bush.

We can't win. Bush doesn't want us to win.

Like a casino, this game is rigged.