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Wikileaks Founder Advised To Avoid American Gov't
eldavojohn writes "Media darling Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, has been told by his lawyers to avoid the United States on the grounds that the US military would like to ask him a few questions about his source of the Collateral Murder video. Assange claims to be holding yet more video (of a US attack on a village that allegedly killed 140 civilians in May of 2009), as well as a quarter million sensitive cables relating to the current foreign war operations from the US State Department. Assange surfaced for the cameras in Brussels while speaking about the need for the freedom of information. Can he build a high enough profile to protect himself from danger?"
But, do you agree with editing exculpatory footage out of videos and then treating the video as the whole story?
Except that you have no evidence of that other than the Pentagon's say-so, and they aren't known for their honesty and forthrightness. Furthermore, the footage you're talking about is not the least exculpatory: it purportedly shows the same gun crew that asked permission to shoot and kill the good samaritans who were aiding the wounded victims of their previous attack, and then shot and killed the good samaritans who were aiding the wounded victims of their previous attack, did not kill another group of completely innocent people previous to shooting and killing the good samaritans who were aiding the wounded victims of their previous attack.
Only in the mind of someone deluded or evil would not killing innocent people prior to killing innocent good samaritans who are aiding the victims of your previous attack count as "exculpatory."
As to the rest: yeah, we'll stop killing them when they stop killing us; and they'll stop killing us when we stop killing them. Sounds like the security-industrial complex is going to be a major profit center for America for decades to come, building all that deadweightloss gear so young American men and women can go off to kill and be killed. Not a bad gig: getting taxpayers to fund the wanton destruction--body and soul--of their own children, all in the name of bigger profits for Lockheed, Haliburton and Blackwaster(Xe).
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Speaking as someone who donates to Wikileaks, if they have to use some of that money for travel and hotels in order to maintain the privacy of whistleblowers and to keep the organization's head moving so that he isn't thrown into a holding cell somewhere, then I am perfectly fine with my money going to those functions.
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
You're sure there are abuses? well so am I. In fact I have no doubt personally that the abuses far outweigh any possible good that can come of the classification system. Time after time throughout history the US government has classified information for the sole reason that it's embarrassing to those currently in power. Until we require a judge to review every classification for legality (and I mean every one from presidential orgies to black ops) the abuses will continue. The government's record on this is absolutely unacceptable.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
None of these dictators could have been/can be removed from office without the use of force
Pretty much all of the dictators on your list came to power as the result of war. So your list is kind of...pointless. And one, Ahmadinejad, isn't even close to be a dictator - he's a figurehead for the clerics that hold the actual power.
Industrial output means nothing, as our focus is on small numbers of advanced weaponry. We have 20 B-2 bombers. That's it. We'll have 187 F-22 fighters. That's it. Whether it's wise or not, the US is counting on technological superiority, not the sheer numbers of industrial output.
I find it interesting that you bring up planes here, because the numbers directly contradict your claims. Take fighters, for example:
USAF/Navy:
F-16 - 1250
F/A-18 - 750
F-15 - 600
F-22 - 175 (your 187 figure is the planned count)
Total: ~2800
Russian AF/Navy:
Su-27 - 410
Su-24 - 320
MiG-29 - 200
MiG-31 - ~200
Su-33 - 23
Su-30 - 12
Su-35 - 12
Total: ~1200
PLAAF/Navy:
J-7 - 470
J-8 - 180
J-11 - 100
J-10 - 80
Su-30 - 90
Su-27 - 70
Total: ~920
The above three countries top the list of those with biggest air forces. As you can see, not only US is #1 in that list, but it actually has more fighter planes than China and Russia combined.
Furthermore, if you split by technical specs, US leads even more, because e.g. it is the only country to field a 5th gen fighter at all, much less 180 of those (neither Russia nor China could afford this even long-term).
If you look at other things, you'll see similar numbers. Pretty much all other military plane categories - check. Warships - check. When it comes to main battle tanks, China has two times less than US, and Russia has about twice as much, but if you only consider those which are readily operational (maintenance is a huge problem for Russian armed forces), US still has more - and note that practically all of those are various variations of Abrams, while the majority of Russian acounts is ancient stuff like T-64 and T-72.
It's true that US army has fewer men enlisted in it, but that's about the only major number on which it is smaller. In terms of equipment - which is what correlates with industrial output - it is the biggest in the world. And if you look at how US did in wars since WW2, it shows - for the most part, American strategy is to steamroll over the enemy by throwing large numbers of superior tech at him, from tanks to cruise missiles.
Considering how expensive, brutal and dehumanizing a war is, you'd have to come up with more than simple assertions to convince me, and hopefully most others, that there is absolutely no other workable recourse.