Published on October 24th, 2010 | by Rosa S
Image © WikiLeaks' release of classified documents about Iraq is getting UK and US officials very hot under the collar. They've been quick to blame the Julian Assange for putting the lives of servicemen at risk, but this kneejerk response exemplifies their reluctance to address the real issue: that what they're are doing abroad just isn't acceptable. What exactly is it then, that's making these leaks headline news?  Well, they reveal that there was a formal order to keep Iraqi torture from being investigated which actively denied the right of Iraqi torture victims to seek justice. They also reveal that there were 15,000 unreported civilian deaths during the Iraq invasion. These are just the “highlights”, check out the Guardian's leading article on the story for more detail. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Ministry of Defence - by Chris Guy on Twitter"][/caption] One viewpoint that is noticeable absent from the that the MoD and State Department criticisms  is that they could go about foreign affairs not doing anything that they're ashamed of. This would mean that leaks wouldn't really be an issue: because after all, WikiLeaks didn't create the facts that their documents reveal about the Iraq invasion - our defence departments did that. And if the abuses didn't exist, then there wouldn't be any need to worry about the security of the personnel responsible for them. (Though there is limited need for this concern anyway, as WikiLeaks specifically removed any information that could be harmful to the individual.) I suppose MoD and State department probably think that this is naïve and impractical view, and maybe you agree. But it's worth remembering that it wasn't so naïve when Obama pledged that the US would become a nation with a moral agenda, one which wasn't seen as a nation responsible for major human rights violations. Back then it was sensible.