Saturday, January 28, 2006

 

Nyah Nyah Nyah. . .Now Come Get Us!

I'm all about freedom of press, keeping the public informed, and keeping abreast of what our government is doing, but one thing gets me: if a pentagon-commissioned report indicates that our military is weak right now, shouldn't that be classified information? I've heard it all over NPR this week.

I can actually say I agee with something Mr. Rumsfeld did: denying that our military is "weakened" is the right thing to do at this point. Whether it's true or not, why would we want the press to spread the word that our military is overwhelmed, especially at a time when we're supposedly still living under threat of terrosim (and with us worrying about China's military power and with Hamas winning Paestinian elections and all. . .)?

Why don't we just put up signs that say, "Hey, enemies! Come get us now while we're vulnerable!"

Some things are important for the public to know, but certain things are important to keep classified. The fact that congressional Democrats also released similar reports makes me suspect that this is more about saying "nyah nyah, Bush and Rummy, we told you so" rather than enlightening the public. It's done, we went there, we can't undo that fact--revealing our weakness is not helping anyone (what can you and I do about it but complain and worry?), and certainly isn't worth revealing our vulnerabilities to potential enemies.

If our military is momentarily weak, I can sacrifice knowing that, if it means that potential terrorists won't know it, either.

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