Aside from Collateral Murder, what shocking revelations have come to light as a result of the leaks? Not saying they don't exist, but speculating perhaps some of the 'revelations' weren't so shocking or were even publicly known.
- The complicity of US forces in turning over captive Baathists to the provisional Iraqi officials for nearly certain torture.
- The revelation that information was classified only to prevent bad news from getting out about the progress of the war effort. This counts as propagandizing the American people.
Thank you for actually providing examples. However, I can't help but feel that:
* Preventing bad news from getting out about the progress of the war effort is to be expected of any military.
* Lying about civilian death tolls is to be expected of any military.
* ISI complicity with the Taliban has been speculated for a long time, even before the leaks. Seeing as the religious element of Pakistan sympathizes greatly(read: completely) with their cause, it makes complete sense that it runs high up the chain of command. IMO the only reason they keep up the facade of alliance is because of our money(and, of course, the decently sized Pakistani diaspora who see the fallacy of the fanaticism in their homeland).
The first issue you mentioned seems to be the only true revelation to me, shocking or not.
Things "expected of any military" might actually be crimes. It is against the law for the US Government to propagandize the American people. At present, a few hawkish members of congress are trying to overturn those laws, and clearly both major parties support overturning them in spirit.
It's reasonable for a US citizen to support the wars if he/she feels that overall they are the right thing to do. But it's an insult to our democratic process to hide the bad news and then turn supporters into dupes who cheer on the team without having a clue about what is actually going on.
> Things "expected of any military" might actually be crimes.
Good point, and that's absolutely the case. The question then to me is would anyone be shocked when those things happen anyways regardless of the law? Even if there was an uproar at such revelations, would anyone be held accountable for them? My answer is "no" and "likely not" respectively.
Collateral Murder was not a shocking revelation. The Washington Post ran a transcript of that video, scene for scene, a year before the video was released. The video only shocked people who don't read.
