Wikileaks

According to some, WikiLeaks is a corporation that seems hell bent on causing chaos in our country. However, others believe that it is working to keep us aware and the governments open with what is going on with our country. So how can you judge what is right and wrong when there are two different sides? With so many arguments about this controversy, it's hard to formulate your own opinions about the subject. But here are the facts behind WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks. Its website, launched in 2006 and run by The Sunshine Press, claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch. The organization describes its founders as a mix of Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its director. Assange, though an Australian citizen, has had no permanent address for several years and is constantly on the move. As you can imagine there are many people angry with him for his actions and he is currently trying to seek political asylum in Switzerland. If he ventures into the United States he is sure to be arrested on the spot as soon as he comes onto our country. He believes that governments should be open with their people and that is whole reason behind WikiLeaks. This organization releases thousands of classified documents and videos, the most controversial of which featured a video of innocent journalists being shot down in Iraq, because their camera equipment from a helicopter resembled AK47s. 12 to 15 people were killed by aerial assault and helicopters even shot at a family trying to help move the bodies to safety. This resulted in the death of a father and the injuries of two of his children among the deaths of innocent civilians and two Reuters reporters. I feel appreciative that WikiLeaks has released this video because it feels like there is finally some justice to those who lost loved ones and it sheds light on our militants serving and why they engaged in the first place. This video can help our military improve so that this horrific incident will never happen again. We can use it to learn from our mistakes and do better, because from the subtitles of the video these pilots seem like they are playing a video with phrases like "sweet," "look at that bitch go." and "nice missile," which can be heard in the background. They don't seem to realize that real human lives are at stake, and they are very insensitive when after everyone is dead, they run over one of the bodies with a tank. Instances like these, I'm glad to see are out there on public display and open to criticism. I am well aware that our government is flawed, however I do realize that sometimes they hide things from us to protect us. It is nice to know that I don't have to worry about something on top of all my other stress about homework, colleges, and my social life. Sometimes ignorance, IS bliss. Hiding the truth from us though, is almost like what you read in George Orwell's 1984, where big brother is always watching and everything you know is a lie. I won't take it that far, but you can see where this is going. So no matter what there are always going to be conflicts with different opinions. You just have to take the good with the bad. This is something that is happening and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. We just have to accept the facts.