OpEdNews - Article: Ellsberg Supports Wikileaks Afghan Occupation Diaries

Daniel Ellsberg. (Photo: jdlasica)

Daniel Ellsberg agrees that The Wikileaks Afghan Occupation Diaries will join the Vietnam Pentagon Papers as a turning point of moral truth in the current Afghanistan stalemate ~ which also cannot answer the two key questions as to why are we there and why are we continuing this expensive exercise in futility: Allen L Roland

The Wikileaks Afghan Occupation Diaries are a shot across the bow of the Obama Administration. On Wednesday, Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and Jim Webb (D-Virginia) sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to refrain from making any major commitments to Afghanistan without the consent of the Senate "We do not believe that a long-term, open-ended presence of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan serves our national interest," the senators wrote.

As a senator, Obama supported a similar request sent to President Bush in 2007 regarding Iraq ~ but the publication of the Wikileak Dairies appears to be having the same effect as the pentagon papers had with the Vietnam conflict.

Before WikiLeaks, before the Afghanistan war, before the Internet, a defense analyst named Daniel Ellsberg rocked America in 1971 when he leaked to the newspapers of the day a top-secret study of US decisionmaking in Vietnam. The documents came to be known as the 'Pentagon Papers.

Ellsberg was also castigated by the financial elite as well as various Senators and Congressman but his papers laid bare the truth of a Vietnam quagmire mired in denial and ineptitude.

Recently, the Monitor's Gloria Goodale talked to Mr. Ellsberg, who now lives inCalifornia, for his unique perspective on the recently released Wikileaks Afghan Occupation papers~ which also lay bare the truth of an Afghan quagmire mired in denial and ineptitude.

Excerpt: Why it Is Important That This Kind of Information Gets Out ?

Ellsberg: " One of the most important messages or conclusions to be drawn from the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago is what they didn't reveal, and that was: In some 7,000 pages of high-level discussions, they didn't reveal a single compelling or even remotely realistic basis for continuing the war. Nor did they answer the question of: Why are we there? And that's the conclusion: that there wasn't an answer to be given. It couldn't be inferred from a very small release of papers, say 10 pages or 20 pages. You really had to see that, year after year, nobody was coming up with or reporting any kind of success."

" And the same is true with this six-year(Afghan) compilation to show that, year after year, the process really isn't changing, and that the more we increased our presence in Afghanistan, the stronger the Taliban was growing. I'm sure, by the way, that this is still the case. A leak I would like to see right now is what the change in Taliban strength has been over these past seven months of President Obama's new strategy. Don't wait for the administration to release that because I'm sure it would be very embarrassing to the strategy. I'm sure that their official estimates of Taliban strength as of July are greater than the estimate in December when Obama initiated that strategy."
http://www.truth-out.org/wikileaks-qa-with-daniel-ellsberg61831

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Wednesday called for the criminal prosecution of Wikileaks, the website that courageously published classified military documents this week. "I'm willing to prosecute anybody who led to undermining the war effort," Graham proclaimed during an appearance on Fox News.

Excuse me, Senator Graham ~ but this is not a war but an illegal and morally unjust occupation that an increasing amount of Veterans, including myself,are rightfully speaking out against.

Here's one of them, Mike Prysner, proclaiming recently that The Real Terrorist was Himself " Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us."

Video & Transcript( 4 Minutes )http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26047.htm

We came within 31 votes of stopping the recently passed War supplemental bill of over 30 Billion dollars for Afghanistan.This unjust occupation can be stopped ~but only if we the people let our voices not only be heard but be registered in petitions, letters and votes in November.

Sign our petition to the Democratic and Republican National Committees to tell them you vote, and you demand an end to thisoccupation

As Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote ~ All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, Second, it is violently opposed and finally it is accepted as being self-evident.

With the publishing of the Wikileaks dairies ~ the sad truth of the Afghanistan Occupation is obviously becoming self evident.

Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/ellsberg-supports-wikileaks-afghan.html