At this point, it seems apparent that WikiLeaks is waging an information war against the US national security establishment. As Selil pointed out on Twitter, the US is overrepresented in WikiLeaks' more high-profile targets. The US has been repeatedly hit, with the title and packaging of the "Collateral Murder" video being a prominent example of WikiLeaks' desire to throw a wrench in the political-military machinery behind the Iraq and Afghan wars. Julian Assange's public statements also support this, most prominently being a recent interview in which he argued that "[t]he most dangerous men are those who are in charge of war....And they need to be stopped." WikiLeaks is no longer about an abstract desire for transparency--it is about advancing its founder's specific--if somewhat incoherent--policy agenda.
For all of the volumes of writing since 9/11 about public diplomacy, information operations, and such this is a bona fide adversary information operation and a very successful one on the tactical level. Of course, it seems doubtful that WikiLeaks is going to actually change the course of policy--as I mentioned in my Huffington Post blog the leaks have so far had at most an ephemeral political effect. The larger question is whether or not it will have a cumulative effect when piled on top of other factors.
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