Daniel Ellsberg was interview for CNN’s Afghanistan blog here:
I think what the Pentagon Papers showed with 7,000 pages was that there was a lack of any good reason for doing what we were doing,” Ellsberg told CNN. “My strong expectation is these 92,000 pages will not convey any good reason for the dying and killing and the enormous money we’re spending over there in a time we cannot afford it. . . .
They’d be well-advised to postpone that vote until Congress has time to digest the gist of this story and hold hearings of the kind they never held on Afghanistan in nine years, and really challenge the administration to give any basis on why we’d do better than the Soviets in their 10 years, or the United States in the last nine years.
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Reasons for war?
The usual ones:
making money by using weapons (and trying them on human “guinea pigs”)
so, testing weapons
usin the ones that become “too old” in order to get “new toys”
industry of armaments shouldn’t be forgotten (and all the money they get in their pockets with each war)
power. showing it and “enjoying it”
politics, deals we mere humans will never know about…unless exposed openly
any advance?
This is what I have been saying for a long time. Sure, there are a handful of extremists who wish to do the US harm. So, we start a full out war killing hundreds of thousands of civilians (or is it millions now, no one ever covers that number), in the process deepening the fact that our country is one of the most hated in the world.
It would be more effective to enlist a few hundred spies, have them infiltrate the “organizations” that wish to do us harm and then take them out one by one.
But no, we have to be at war.
I just got into WikiLeaks and it’s my hope that someday I will have the power to deploy this information for the good of my community. Keep up the good fight, Ellsberg, I’ll make sure to monitor your site.
One good way to know when a society is in trouble is when it becomes more dangerous to tell the truth than to remain silent.
Just heard that Congress voted to approve new war funding. Several Congresspeople said they were “influenced” by the latest Wikileaks release. But they still voted for it anyway.
saw the documentary today (most dangerous man etc) you were and are a true inspiration. why are principled people in such short supply. thank you for what you did.