Wednesday, September 5, 2012

(De)Classified

Should our government keep secrets from the public? It's a huge question with tons of consequences on either side. Here's my thoughts:

On first thought I'd say no, they should be open with us about anything and everything that may effect us on any level. Then when I stop to think about it, maybe there are somethings we just don't need to know. 

The reason it's even on my mind started with this book No Easy Day that one of the members of SEAL Team 6 wrote about the mission that ended with the death of Osama Bin Laden. Like most Americans, when this all first happened I wanted to know more. That sadistic a-hole killed hundreds of innocent people and I wanted to see him suffer like they did. Once things calmed down though, I was fine knowing he was dead and didn't need to know the details. Now this book is coming out that tells everything which I think is a bad idea. Not only will we as Americans get to see what happened, our enemies will as well. The details in this book could fuel another group to start conflict with the US or even give details on how US military operations are coordinated and executed putting current and future troops in more danger.

Another bit of info that's been made public lately that I'm baffled by is the Secret Service's codenames for those they protect. For example, President Obama is "Renegade", Mitt Romney is "Javelin", and so on. What is the point in having codenames if EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE! In normal every day situations, it won't make much difference but if something does go wrong and someone needs to be discreetly moved from one place to another, they wouldn't even be able to use their codename without everyone knowing exactly who they were talking about!

I'm all for open government and people being informed about what happens on Capitol Hill, but I think it's safe to say that SOME things just aren't meant for the public. The problem is, who decides...

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