Sunday, August 22, 2010

Fantasy Finale

Lots in the news lately about WikiLeaks.

I'm a big fan of their work as I really do believe that information is a good thing. Democracy dies without transparency and freedom of the press.

While a number of people objected to the release of the Afghanistan war diaries, I found the information about the initial investigation into the disappearance of Pfc Bowe Bergdahl fascinating. It's clear from the early incident reports that Bergdahl's colleagues did whatever they could to find him. I'm not in the field of search and rescue, so maybe the process was flawed, or maybe there were other things they should have done, but it certainly looked crystal clear that the searchers gave it their best shot.

Kudos to them for their efforts.

As a result of WikiLeaks, every once in a while I have this fantasy that someone somewhere stumbles on this blog - reads a post like Evidence - physical and other - and covertly sends the relevant digital audio and satellite files to WikiLeaks. There's new evidence. They catch the bad guys. Justice is served.

But then reality kicks in, and I wonder if anyone would notice - or care. Because, let's face it, the missing in Iraq are out of sight and out of mind to all but their family, friends and a handful of press. And I do mean handful of press as in - 5 people world wide.

Which just makes the fantasy of new evidence so much better than the reality of ongoing indifference.

Americans Missing in Iraq - as of August 9, 2010

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