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...a better way to phrase it.
The answer is very little.
However, "need to know" does count for something.
We had a similar but different kerfuffle over patient's medical records here in Australia a little while back. Theoretically and legally those records were the property of the patient. However, the physicians had a very good reason for wanting to keep the actual contents of those records secret. Not a particularly nice reason, but as far as they were concerned, a very, very good one. Over the years, the paper records accumulated a number of private notations placed there by nursing staff and doctors. And in the greater scheme of things matters would have been a lot better all around if certain "secrets" could have been kept.
PIA was the one that "broke the scandal".
Eventually some people through FOI and the courts got their hands on their original medical records, and after much fruitless perusal of the literature to discover the medical meaning of the acronym "PIA", someone thought to ask a retired nurse (or something like that). "PIA" turned out to mean Pain In Arse. Other such previously cryptic notations were discovered to be equally pithy evaluations of a patient's character or behaviour.
And in defence of the medicos, the notations served a useful purpose. It gave them warning of what to expect in repeat customers and (if they were smart) prompt modifiy THEIR behaviour as carers accordingly. Verbally we, all of us, issue similarly "succinct" warnings all the time. But since unvarnished opinions almost invarriably burn, we indulge in all sorts of polite social fictions and do our sniping behind each other's backs. The recorded word kind of tosses sand into the gears of society.
There was no pressing need for the patients to know of these "private opinions", the only true beneficiaries in the whole debacle were the lawyers.
All that said: There comes a time.
Nothing surprising, and there truly is nothing really surprising in these leaks, is not the same as nothing to see. Some of the leaked cables are documented confirmation of suspicions previously only supported by anecdote and third hand accounts. Earlier leaks of military material put the lie to the "official story".
And if you look at in a certain way the progression of these leaks makes a great deal of sense. Assange has offered the United States mulitple oportunities to modify its global behaviour with at least a modicum of grace. To acknowledge military errors, make restitution, and either get the fuck out, or seriously rethink strategies.
Unfortunately, allowing one all too simple stipulation. That if the goal is continuation of conflict, rather than its resolution, all the crap going on in the world that is "too stupid for words" suddenly becomes almost pure Machiavelli. And the sheer horiffic beauty of the whole fucking mess is that a situation like Abu Grahib can be engineered simply by not bringing the hammer down on "fuckups" BEFORE matters reached the level of "frat house behaviour".
How did Iraq go from pockets full of sweets to streets full of rubble in a matter of weeks? I'm certain, deliberately leaving amouries, national treasures and antiquities, nuclear reactors (and other sites), hospitals, utilities, in fact, pretty much every site of civic, national, military (WTF?) or ecconomic importance, entirely unguarded for a considerable period of time after the occupation of Bhagdad had absolutely nothing to do with it. No one could possibly have anticipated that insurgent forces would have taken the opportunity to arm themselves. That criminals would loot the nation of its treasures and history. That a looter would emerge for every exposed niche. That infrastructure wouldn't be destroyed by "freedom fighters".
Oh I said "pretty much every" didn't I? Funnily enough, the one little bit of Iraq that was very quickly secured and put under guard were the oil fields. Ostensibly to prevent a repeat of the firing of the oil fields that accompanied the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.
Other documents strongly suggest that an intent existed to make this war pay, by getting that oil moving ASAP. Unfortunately for that idea, it turned out that Sadam had put very little effort into upgrading those fields. And I would have thought that anyone with half a brain would have anticipated this. Like why the fuck bother. The amount of oil he was allowed to legitmately produce under sanctions, ammounted to cracking a couple of valves. Even his black market sales were fuck all in the greater scheme of things.
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