Arianna appeared on "George Stromboulopoulos Tonight" Monday and called WikiLeaks' "cablegate" a "really good" thing.
Arianna told the Canadian talk show host that she hopes the leaked diplomatic communiques shed light on the Afghan war, its cost to America, and prompt the public to ask why we're still there.
"The question that everybody should be asking is why. Why are we there? Why is it in the national security interests of America or Canada to be there propping up a corrupt regime. Spending, in the case of America, $2.8 billion per week."
The leaked State Department documents reveal that in addition to the unflattering assessments of President Hamid Karzai and his cabinet, Afghanistan's Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud was once caught traveling through Dubai with $52 million in cash. Massoud "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money's origin or destination."
WATCH:
Bill Quigley: Why WikiLeaks Is Good for Democracy
Schlotzky’s Deli
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/30/noam_chomsky_wikileaks_cables_reveal_profound
I wouldn't say that WikiLeaks has supplanted journalism (although there is something to be said about Fox-style demagogy) it has provided a more secure platform for people to reveal secrets, much more direct much more effective, a lot faster than conventional methods.
Journalists are still required to look through the heap of information for really interesting titbits and analyse those. I must admit they are doing a good job. As soon as Wikileaks announced the upload of the cables, journalists launched a coordinated effort of scrutinising the information and delivering the analysis to their audience. They did it at lightning speeds.
Government officials were caught with their knickers around their knees all of a sudden hordes of journalists were asking very difficult questions based on cables government officials had not assessed yet.
There are so many areas around the world that have leaders and governments that impoverish their people so why spend $2Billion + a week in Afghanistan and Iraq? Big business has massive influence and financial interest in the outcome and now they are having to "please explain" some of their actions and they don't like it on bit.
The thing they fear most is that across all levels of middle class to the unemployed, their corporate and personal benefit is contrary to the welfare (and in some cases lives) of the very people they enlist to achieve their business goal.
When the volume of material being released by WikiLeaks becomes so much - you have to ask why are some people in positions of security doing this? Because they're unpatriotic, criminals or are they seeing the level of deception going on and the bail outs on one hand and the impact of hardship inflicted on fellow community on the other? Surely $2B + a week could be better spent.
Easy to point the finger and say 'you're putting our soldiers at risk', but who put them there in the first place and why - perhaps now some of these questions are being answered and those who gain from it don't like it one bit.
Training someone how to kill takes only a few months - training someone how to save takes years.
Bush made a last ditch effort surge and it never worked . To little to late.
Obama made a surge Afghanistan with a plan of Exit, a date that slid. With Mc Crystal and Karzai talking to fake Taliban were done.
If the exit strategy is anything like the TARP plan taking a loan of 715 billion dollars . Going big was the only way out . The result was the Banks already payed back all the money with Interest and the whole deal only cost 25 billion to get the Economy going . .
We lost six of our most precious family today by a guy wearing our uniform. .
Arianna mentioned 2.8 billion dollars per week. In comparison Ireland was bailed out by the EU today and that would mean in twelve weeks we would be bankrupted again.
Its not just money but ten thousand people are now dead and 100,000 maines are wounded.
The middle east is in a debacle.
Vietnam Ended when the NVC attacked 157 US basis simultaneously on the same day. Our Ass got kicked and we went down. .
If we don't go big we die. Thirty thousand with a plan to cut and run is ridiculous.
Fight or get out . Our soldiers only know how to win. The policeman days are over we don't have the dough.
a) change the world for the good (if paranoid governments like N. Korea and Iran don't blow us all up first), or
b) they can be the new bullies who go to the highest bidder.
And, if "b" happens, how will we know? The nature of what they do is in secret, of course. I'm not saying we need to crucify them. But we do need to ask questions.
Despite what people here are cheering or jeering about, the newest Wikileaks, IMHO, are a mixed bag. In a world of rational people, it might all be good. But that isn't what we have.
I posted my full thoughts at mabworld.wordpress.com.
I didn't need wikileaks to tell me that we are caught up in a useless, unwinnable conflict but it was helpful to know that the former head of our intelligence service (CSIS) thinks we are all a bunch of whiners because we support human rights and are rather good at moral indignation.
The other was something to do with drugs financing Terrorism.
We Hung one Guy and the other Guy we don't know if he is dead or alive.