Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Wikileaks crap: Tell me one thing

Maybe I’m going soft, but the Wikileaks dump kind of makes me ill. The whole situation strikes me as a bit sordid. I worry that great newspapers are getting played. If the leaks brought great revelations, I might think differently, but so far I don’t think I have been surprised by a single thing I’ve ...

SanFranAnnie/flickr
SanFranAnnie/flickr
SanFranAnnie/flickr

Maybe I'm going soft, but the Wikileaks dump kind of makes me ill. The whole situation strikes me as a bit sordid. I worry that great newspapers are getting played. If the leaks brought great revelations, I might think differently, but so far I don't think I have been surprised by a single thing I've read. Civilian contractors shooting up people, Arab-Kurd tensions, abuse of prisoners, Rumsfeld in denial, Iranian meddling, Maliki paranoid? At this late date, that's the full-house Iraqi version of a dog bites man story. (Or maybe a book.)

Maybe I’m going soft, but the Wikileaks dump kind of makes me ill. The whole situation strikes me as a bit sordid. I worry that great newspapers are getting played. If the leaks brought great revelations, I might think differently, but so far I don’t think I have been surprised by a single thing I’ve read. Civilian contractors shooting up people, Arab-Kurd tensions, abuse of prisoners, Rumsfeld in denial, Iranian meddling, Maliki paranoid? At this late date, that’s the full-house Iraqi version of a dog bites man story. (Or maybe a book.)

Here is an attempt to argue the opposing viewpoint. But I still say that adding mayonnaise doesn’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad. Here’s my test: Tell me one thing we didn’t know last week that we know now about the Iraq war.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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