It is sufficient to say "I think what they did was irresponsible but I'll defend their right to do it" but if thats what you think, you have to say it, because the later part is what is important at this moment, and not the earlier part.

At this moment I find my convictions regarding the later part are being challenged, and so I cannot express my views on the earlier matter.

I think that is the point of the whole incident.

I'm in about the same place you are. This isn't the Pentagon Papers. The "vital public interest" part of the equation is missing.

In the case of the Afghanistan documents, the damage has far outweighed the good. Nothing about the Afghanistan documents contributes to the enlightened citizenry we require to be the restraint on executive policy. It's more about gloating over a security breech than contributing to a public dialog.

In the case of the Apache attack video, there is more room for debate. Not much more mind you... There is an argument that it was in the public interest, as it could have exposed a cover-up of some type (even though it didn't).

What worries me is the diplomatic cables Manning spoke of.. And the matter of the "insurance file"... There is reason to believe that Wikileaks is still holding onto some unreleased information that has the potential to be seriously damaging. Every release of the information leaked by Manning appears to be more serious than the last.

What truly infuriates me about Wikileak's actions is how this seriously hurts the FOI community. Wikileaks is pretty much daring DoD to find a way to exercise prior restraint on them. Our speech freedoms come with responsibility. They are betraying us all by their irresponsible actions.

As for Manning, I hope he rots in jail for the next 50+ years. I do not see his actions as noble. It's not like he leaked a thing here or there to expose some evils... He leaked vast amounts of information with little regard. He betrayed the entire intelligence and military community, both ours and our allies. The chat logs with Lamo didn't show higher reasoning.. I see only a fucked up child who never should have had the access he did.

All that being said, DoD really screwed the pooch here too. They pushed SIPRNet out to a base with junior analysts and had weak ass security controls in place. Manning was able to take writable media in and out of secured areas. Usage wasn't being audited. Total IA fail.

RE: WikiLeaks disclosures are a 'tragedy' - CNN.com