
It’s Not About Assange, It’s About Press Freedom - ericsong
https://medium.com/dialogue-and-discourse/its-not-about-assange-it-s-about-press-freedom-e46cbc26e117
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fit2rule
Its not about press freedom, its about impunity from war crimes. The free
press is being attacked by the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex,
because it has a lot to lose when people wake up from the agitprop funk and
start investigating the crimes of their state, again.

Basically, whatever the circumstances regarding Assange - who is now
essentially a dead agent who can no longer be trusted - the most important
thing that must happen, is for there to be more leaks, with real evidence, so
that the war crimes investigations can begin.

The US and its coalition partners have been getting away with murder. Press
freedoms of the participating states have never been in worse shape - so now
its time for the whistle-blowing to step up a notch.

~~~
Meph504
Here is the thing about war crimes, they are mostly meaningless unless the
military that committed them, agrees to be prosecuted for them.

None of the permanent UN security council ever will, and without their crimes
are on the scale of genocide, nothing will be done.

I mean Russia, literally just took over Crimea, and nothing was done.

Do you estimate that some leaked documents, or videos will do anything?

Has a single war crimes case resulted from the manning dump?

At this point, these dumps are just political tools, masking as something more
IMO.

~~~
fit2rule
I find this to be a highly irrational, disturbing and very, very dangerous
line of thought.

Yes, revealing war crimes - regardless of whether they are prosecuted by legal
entities with the responsibility to do so - is vital to the health of society.

It must be done in order to live in a just and fair way - covering it up leads
to escalation, as we have seen time and time again in recent history.

Do you really think that 'waiting until its at genocide scale' is the
appropriate action to take?

The people must not be lied to about the crimes committed in their name by
their state - because they, ultimately, will pay the price.

Cheney and Bush may not be in irons in The Hague, but certainly a large
portion of the Western world, having educated itself on the reality of our
criminal wars, has a right to know what is being done in our names - and
cultural justice does result from these secret crimes being revealed.

~~~
Meph504
So I have to disagree about revealing war crimes being vital to the health of
a society, historically people don't care, they may initially act like they
care, but they take no action, our societies are built on destruction,
exploitation, and suffering of others. Which is the logical reason you don't
see public protest or change for any of these crimes.

The reason that war crimes aren't stopped isn't because people don't know,
it's they don't care.

So some video may get 15 minutes of face, but it doesn't change anything is my
point.

It's just annoying to see people keep acting like wiki leaks and it's
figurehead are doing noble work and must be protected.

Perhaps my view point is jaded, but it's based on first hand seeing how
regardless of the slaughter the first world is, and it does nothing without
material motivation.

I

~~~
fit2rule
If it were really the case that people don't care, then D-Day wouldn't have
been a thing.

People do care - but are led into apathy by those around them who choose to
remain inactive. We are a social species, and this is _precisely_ why we must
always work to uncover the crimes of those who would use the destruction of
other nations to profit.

Please stop enabling criminal behaviour.

I urge you to take your opinion and re-assess it. Should we not report crime
in our own neighbourhoods, because "people don't care"? If that is the case,
you are enabling criminal behaviour.

~~~
Meph504
You should probably study history a bit better, the US joined the war after
the attack of pearl harbor, for months before that the American people wanted
nothing to do with the war, commonly referring to it, as a European problem.

Dday happened in June of 1944, the concentration camps weren't discovered by
the US until 1945.

So the idea that Dday was related to the US people knowing of the war crimes
of the nazi isn't really accurate.

America knew of the Khmer RougeKhmer Rouge and did nothing as countless were
slaughtered, the same with stains actions in Russia.

We are a social species, but part of that is localization we care about our
selves more than strangers, and unless our government has a political
motivation, we don't go to war over it.

I'm not enabling criminal behavior I'm just stating the reality of the world
today.

As for the reporting crime in our. Neighborhood feel free to read many of the
past accounts, or studies show that for the most part show that if reporting a
crime that doesn't directly effect them, but will cause them a minor
inconvenience, that people typically dont.

I encourage you to reevaluate your perspective after studying a bit of history
and studying sociology.

I'm not advocating we sweep these crimes under the rug, but that we stop
pretending that they are changing the world.

~~~
fit2rule
I don't share your fatalist view, nor do I think your 'realism' is anything
more than a justification for continued bad behaviour.

The world doesn't change when someone says "that's how its always been". It
hasn't always been the case that the US can get away with its war crimes -
however I believe this argument would be better executed if either one of us
had actual experience with being the loser in a war crime situation.

My experience with refugees from America's illegal wars has definitely
prompted me to take a look at what I've been ignoring about my own culture. I
have to wonder if you would be so flip about America's war crimes, if you'd
had any experience with the results themselves. It would be a pity if that's
the only way your apathy would be moved.

